Herbivorous animals - a special category in the world of fauna

Animal life is an important part of the environment and the processes that occur in it. Participation in biological systems and food chains is a necessity for its representatives. Many animals promote the reproduction of plants, and those, in turn, serve as food for fauna. This is a union that links herbivorous animals with other inhabitants of wildlife.

The fauna world is divided into a huge number of categories - species, subspecies, orders, classes. Among them are herbivorous animals - those representatives of the fauna that feed exclusively on food of plant origin. They are first-order consumers in the food chain.

A feature of the digestive system of these representatives of the surrounding world is the predominance of the food enzyme amylase. Some herbivorous animals have an enzyme that breaks down cellulose. This allows them to more easily digest food of plant origin.

Herbivorous animals are the exact opposite of the carnivorous representatives of the fauna. Basically, these categories can be divided into higher animals. Smaller, microscopic organisms are difficult to attribute to one or another of them, since it is often unclear even their belonging to the world of flora or fauna. They themselves serve as food for many animals.

Dividing into groups by type of food is difficult and for several reasons. Some representatives of the fauna world can change habits related to the diet during their lifetime. Also, many of them are omnivorous. For example, some roundworms lead a parasitic life in representatives of the animal world, others are in a free environment, and a smaller part of them feeds on plants. The same applies to mites: some of them are parasites and live at the expense of animals, and some live in plants.

There are a lot of such cases among fauna representatives. An example of a change in the diet during the life is the frog. In adulthood, it feeds on food of animal origin, while its tadpole is herbivorous (feeds on algae). To the herbivorous animals can be attributed koalas, sloths, kangaroos, whales, some parnopalhis, all proboscis, daisies and bats.

Ungulates (forest, desert, steppe) animals in their majority also belong to this class. All of them feed on plant food, but if they eat foods of a different origin, then in very small quantities, not comparable to the volume of plants in their diet. To protect against attack, many ungulates are provided with horns, bone formations on the head. Rhinoceroses have a horn that is located on the nose. Saliva of herbivorous animals does not distinguish ptyalin. It is mainly intended for wetting food.

Food of plant origin is very difficult to digest. To facilitate this process is called a complex structure of the stomach, which has herbivorous animals. In ruminant representatives of this class, it consists of a net, a scar, a book and an abomasum. This allows you to easily digest fiber- rich food. The process takes place in several stages: from the scar, badly chewed grass can again be thrown into the esophagus, and then into the mouth - the animal "chews the cud." Dampened with saliva, thoroughly chewed food this time does not fall into the scar, but flows down the groove and gets through the net into a book, and then into the abomasum. From the abomasum, it is thrown out in small portions into the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed into the blood.

Vegetable animals have differences in the structure of the teeth. They are characterized by teeth with a flat crown and a large gap in the jaws. Many of them have no incisors. Herbivores have very powerful chewing muscles that are responsible for rubbing hard plant foods.