Time to Munch
Plants are often very easy for herbivores to find, but they are sometimes low in the nutrients the animals need to grow and stay healthy. Seeds are often packed with energy-rich nutrients like starches, but other parts of plants -- like stems and leaves -- don't have as many nutrients. Herbivores that rely on those plant parts must spend a lot of their time grazing and browsing to get the nutrients they need!
Chewing It Over
Some herbivores have digestive systems to help them get the most out of the plants they eat. Animals like sheep,
moose,
white-tailed 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. Once the cellulose is broken down, the food returns to the stomach where it is digested. When you hear that an animal is chewing its
cud, it is re-chewing food that it had already swallowed!
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