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What is a herbivore?
Herbivores live on plant material
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How are herbivores able to digest cellulose?
Cellulose can be changed into a form that can be absorbed by the body. To do this these animals make significant use of bacteria to ferment the grasses that they eat. The broken down products from the bacteria are absorbed by the stomach, and energy from the cellulose becomes available for use by the herbivore.
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Describe, with an example, a foregut fermenter:
The stomach or part of the oesphagus is vastly enlarged to accomodation bacterial digestion. For example in cattle an expanded stomach can have up to 300 litres and constitute 15 per cent of the body mass.
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Describe, with an example, a ruminant:
One stomach but has many compartments, an example is cattle, sheep and goats, they are all known as ruminants.
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Describe, with an example, a hindgut fermenter:
Some mammals have modified regions of the colon and caecum for bacterial digestion, for example Dugongs are hindgut fermenters.
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