ANSC 2120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Hindgut Fermentation, Carnivore, Hoatzin

• School: Cornell University
• Department: Animal Science
• Course: ANSC 2120
• Professor: Debbie Cherney

Document Summary

Adaptation of animals to their environments by development of (cid:1) dietary habits and physiological mechanisms that allow them to exploit available food sources in their habitats (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Obligate v. facultative (cid:1) (cid:1: pregastric fermenters. Nonruminants: felids are obligate carnivores because the need meat to be adequately nourished, or otherwise need a highly synthetic diet. Specific food source: ex: frugivore (only fruit), folivore (only leaves), insectivore etc. (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) The digestive tracts of all mammals and birds contain microorganisms that break down ingested organic matter via fermentation. Can classify digestive anatomy of different species by gastrointestinal location and magnitude of fermentative digestion. *** sheep poop pelleted because they originated in a hot climate so they needed to conserve water. Includes domestic ruminants; very important in animal production. Other well-known examples are macropod marsupials (ex: kangaroo), hippo, and hamster. Postgastric fermenters (also called hindgut fermenters) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1)