Herbivorous

Herbivores are animals that exist mainly on a diet of plants or algae. Some eat a wide range of plants, others are more exclusive and eat only particular types, such as monarch butterfly caterpillars which feed on milkweed and pandas on bamboo. Anatomical and physiological adaptations help some herbivores become specialists, for example, in their tolerance of spiky leaves or an in-built antidote to toxins. Other specialists restrict themselves to certain parts of a plant: hummingbirds feed on nectar and greenfly feed on sap.

Watch video clips from past programmes (1 clip)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

About

A herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat plants.

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism consumes principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. By that definition, many fungi, some bacteria, many animals, some protists and a small number of parasitic plants can be considered herbivores. However, herbivory is generally restricted to animals eating plants. Fungi, bacteria and protists that feed on living plants are usually termed plant pathogens. Microbes that feed on dead plants are saprotrophs. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are usually termed parasitic plants. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Other Feeding habits Adaptations

Explore the BBC

BBC © MMIX

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.