Herbivorous define various creatures that have 100% plant-based food on their diet. There are more than 4000 species of creatures that is considered as herbivores. They are spread on all continent which is why, you can easily find one around you.
Herbivorous Define from Their Food
Herbivorous creature gets their energy from the plants that they eat. Their diet includes fruits, algae, vegetables, roots, seeds, nuts, grasses, and many other foliage. That is why, herbivorous define them as important because of their role inside the food chain.
Energy that is created by plant will be eaten by herbivores then carnivores will eat herbivores. Meanwhile omnivores can get energy from both carnivores and herbivores. Since herbivores eat plants, they are considered primary consumer.
Meanwhile, carnivores are considered as secondary consumer since they consume other creatures that eat plants. Then the tertiary consumers consist of animals that feeds on those secondary as well as primary consumers. Usually tertiary consumers are carnivorous but they can also be omnivore.
Read: Examples of Carnivores
Various Animals That is Consider as Herbivores
1. Koala
The first herbivores examples are native of Australia country which live inside eucalyptus forest. They have ability to digest gum trees leaves that cannot be eaten by many animals since they are toxic. But they can only absorb around a quarter from all of the fiber they eat.
This means, they need to eat a lot of extra leaves to fulfill their nutrient requirements. Since they eat a lot of food, they also need long hours of sleep to digest those food. They can sleep up to 20hours daily as the result.
2. Hippo
They are considered as the 3rd largest mammal on the land. Their average weight is around 3,300 pounds. They eat mostly grass and will send a few hours of their evening grazing for their food. Other than that, they will spend most of their time inside the water.
3. Elephants
Herbivorous define them as the largest animal in the land, they can weight up to 14,000pounds. Their appearance is very distinct with their long trunks and wide ears. Since they are very big, they can eat around 100 to 200 pounds of food every day which consist of plant-based food.
4. Giant Panda
This creature is considered endangered since their population decreases a lot because of deforestations of their habitat. They are considered as folivore since they eat mostly leaves.
Their diet consists of bamboo leaves and shoot but sometimes they can eat egg or meat. Since 99% of the time, they will only eat bamboo they are still considered as herbivores. They can grow up to 350 pounds weight and around 6 feet long.
READ: Examples of Omnivores
5. Rabbit
You can find these examples of herbivores all over the world. They mostly eat flowering plants, grass and various leafy weeds. Their food will be digest inside cecum which is the the large intestine.
Their cecum size is actually 10x larger compared to the stomach. But that intestine is very strong which able to separate fibrous material that will be excreted in the end as waste.
Those are some of the examples with a few explanations how herbivorous define them from their food.
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