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Animal Nutrition

Omnivores, carnivores and herbivores all have differences in their feeding modes, and these differences are particularly seen in the jaw structure, muscles, dentition and gut of an animal. In this essay I will cover three different animals of mammalian nature.

The jaw structure of an animal plays a vital part in determining its eating habits. In an herbivore, the jaw is relatively long and tends to have a diastema, or toothless space. This is seen in a giraffe, they have a long lower jaw but no teeth at the front of it. Instead it uses a 46-centimetre tongue to wrap around the food and pull off the high branches of a tree. A giraffe is known as a ruminant, which means that they chew their food and swallow it, then regurgitate it back up again to chew some more, and repeat this many times, while being processed through it’s four stomachs. They do this to break down the food as much as possible using the enzymes found in their saliva.

A carnivore, such as a lion, however, has a...

Posted by: Jennifer Valles

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