Herbivore Digestive System

Date:30/6/08 MON

I decided to research on the digestive system of herbivore, so as to answer my question that is stated in the first post. There are a lot of herbivores in this world, so i will focus on some species which everyone knows.

Some herbivores have digestive systems to help them get the most out of the plants they eat. Animals like sheep, moose, deer and cows have a special stomach called a rumen where microorganisms break down cellulose. Animals with a rumen are called ruminants. Ruminants swallow their food and then regurgitate it and chew on it again to break down the cellulose in the plant.

Later on this food, now called cud, is brought back up into the animal's mouth to be chewed more. This is called chewing the cud. Once the cellulose is broken down, the cud is then swallowed and goes into the third and fourth parts of the stomach, called the omasum and abomasum, where digestion continues.

Some of the herbivores are non-ruminants, which are the oppsite of ruminants and do not have the special stomach, rumen. Hence, I am going to reserch about another kind of herbivores and remember to check it out on the next post. Off for more research...