Difference of Carnivores and Herbivores Digestive System - Essay Example

Difference of Carnivores and Herbivores Digestive System Course name and Code Institution Name Departments Name Student Name Student Number Tutors Name 8 September 2008 Nutrition allows animals and people to use food substances that enables the body be energetic and develops the body structure. Any nutrition action to take place, it brings in the digestive system that most animals have. Digestive system is a tube-like structure in which it allows food to go through various mechanical alterations. Food enters through the mouth and passes through a long tube and out through the anus. Therefore, all the stages that the food passes through are acted upon by different forces and chemicals that change the nature of the food that has been initially taken. There are different kind of animals and they posses’ different digestive system. Some of the animals are the carnivores and herbivores. Carnivores are animals that take in meat and digest it. On the other hand, herbivores take in plants or vegetations and digest them to obtain the nutritional value that the different foods come with (Kevin 2007). Even though they take food and the food has to pass through the digestive system, there are differences that are associated with their digestive capability and their method of (digestion) operation. Therefore, their differences are viewed in certain specific areas: oral cavity, stomach and small intestines, and the colon. Oral Cavity In many cases, carnivorous animals have a wide mouth that opens more than the size of its head. The mouth develops the force that makes it advantageous when seizing, killing and breaking of the prey. The muscles in the face are greatly reduced since the muscles would hinder wide gape, and at the same time, the muscle has no benefit when the animal swallows the food. The jaw has a hinge joint which lies in the same level like the teeth (Bramble 2005). Such a joint is stable, at the same time acts has a pivotal point, and forms the upper and lower jaws. Temporalis muscle is the primary muscle that aids the movement of the jaws. Additionally, the lower jaw is smaller since the muscles in this place: pterygoids and masseter, have less importance in digestive power of the carnivore. In any digestive system process, digestion begins at the mouth and the important aspect that is in the mouth is the teeth. Generally, the teeth of carnivores are sharp. The canines are sharp, long and curved, the incisors are pointed and sharp, and the molars are also adapted with jagged, blade shaped and are sharp. Mostly, herbivores don’t posses canines but if there is some, they are either short or long but usually dull, and the molars are not jagged and have cusps (Cox 2007). The adaptation of the carnivore teeth: sharp and jagged, is used to tear flesh and swallows the flesh wholly without chewing. On the other hand, herbivore chews most of the time (cud) which is contributed by the design of the blunt teeth, which at the same time are flat. A nice example is the difference of a cow and a lion digestive system. The mouth of a lion is wide with muscled jaws that move in vertical motion. However, the cow has a small opening, and the food that is chewed is through less shear movement of front-to-back and side-to-side motion of the mouth (horizontally). This is different when compared to carnivores that move their molars in vertical motion. Additionally, the teeth of herbivorous are closely put together to enable the incisors to be efficient in biting mechanism, the upper and lower platforms forms the basis of grinding and crushing food. The nature of the mouth cavity is usually “walled in” to increase and decrease the space that is used during eating (Kevin 2007). When the herbivores chew their food through pushing of food forth and back and grinding with the help of the cheek muscles and tongue, it enables the production of digestible intracellular contents. The digestible intracellular contents are obtained through the disruption of the plant cell walls mechanically. Moreover, when saliva is increased, it increases the amount of carbohydrate-digesting enzymes (Cox 2007). Most animals have saliva but in different forms. In the case of an herbivore, it is usually the beginning of the digestion process. The saliva in herbivores contains certain enzymes, which starts the digestive process through the breakdown of the carbohydrates. Hence, by the time the food reaches the stomach digestion has already began. This is why the herbivores chews their food, and at the same time the reason for the adaptive teeth that are designed to assist in processing the food (Bramble 2005). However, carnivores’ saliva doesn’t have any kind of role in their digestive system, hence the reason why most carnivores don’t chew their food but swallow it wholly. Carnivores eat meat that has been lying for some time, the saliva of a carnivore acts as an immune system, because it disinfects the meat before it starts its digestion (Woods 2004). This can be easily be seen when a cat or a dog licks its wounds, the saliva disinfects the wounds hence acts as a first-aid remedy. Stomach and Small Intestines The unique and striking difference between the herbivorous and carnivorous comes out in the digestion organs. The stomach of carnivorous which is single chambered (capacious) contributes to between 60 % - 70 % of the digestion system. The digestion process of carnivores is usually simple because of the nature of the food that they consume, hence the intestines are 5 – 6 times the length of the body (Kevin 2007). The large stomach of the carnivores is important as it gives the ability of storing a large amount of food, since they may kill only once a week. They use they small amount of time in swallowing the food so that it can be digested later. They have the capability of releasing a high amount of gastric which maintains the stomach at a pH of between 1 – 2 even if there is presence of food (Kevin 2007). The high pH is useful in ensuring that any dangerous bacterium that is in the decaying meat is easily killed and the high pH aids in breaking down of the protein that is in their stomach. Generally, the stomach of carnivores serves two purposes: storage and absorption. Small amounts of foods can stay for longer times in the stomach of carnivores. The concentrated stomach that contains hydrochloric acid dissolves and at the same time liquefies its contents. Hence, the foods that are dissolved are the ones that can be absorbed. Other foods that cannot be digested are passed through the intestines and when they are large, they are vomited (Woods 2004). In most cases, digestion takes place in the small intestines. The food which has been dissolved – chime, leaves the stomach in forms of spurts and controlled by valves (pylorus). The food is then digested in the small intestines and transferred to the bloodstream. There are enzymes that come from the liver and the ducts that assist in breaking down of the proteins and fats into amino acid and fatty acids respectively. Glands in the body of the carnivores produce enzymes that further assists in digestion of foods. For herbivorous it is a different case, their stomach contributes to about 30% of the digestive system, while the intestines contributes to between 10 – 12 times of their body length (Fenelon 2007). This is because they consume complex foods that has large amounts of indigestible fibers, hence the guts are more developed when compared with herbivorous. This is because the stomach of herbivorous should not be empty, so the herbivore has to eat most of the times when compared to a carnivore that requires a single meal a day. In addition, there are those animals that consume foods that have higher level of cellulose of which should be fermented so as to enable them to obtain the nutrients. Such animals are referred to as ruminants: hindgut fermenters or foregut fermenters. These ruminants have celebrated multi-chambered stomachs that stores and digests the food. Other herbivores that digest simple or softer vegetation do not require the multiple stomachs. Hence, the reason for the simple digesting herbivorous has a small stomach and a longer intestine. The difficult to digest type of food is first fermented in their hindguts. The ruminants chew cud and in most cases have four chambers with a large caecum (Richard 2001). Additionally, the herbivores increase the efficiency and sophistication of the GI tract through the inclusion of the saliva and other carbohydrate digesting enzymes. For those animals that posses a simple chambered stomach, have no use of fermentation since the vegetation that they are used to requires small amounts of energy to digest them. Calories and nutrients that are in the fermented food are consumed by bacteria and protozoa before reaching the smaller intestines for digestion. This is the reason for the long intestines to enable easy absorption of food. When the first part of the four stomachs of some herbivorous are filled with the vegetation that they have taken, it begins regurgitating small parts of food to enable it to be chewed and further mixed with saliva. The production of protozoa and bacteria during the chewing process differentiate it from carnivores that lack this facility (Podkalicka 2007). Most of the stomachs of herbivorous are interested in breaking down of the foods: rumen, reticulum, omasum, and obomasum. The true stomach is usually the obomasum that has glands that secrete pepsin, hydrochloric acid and lipase. However, the concentration of the secretes are weaker when compared with carnivores. These various enzymes make it possible in killing the many bacteria and protozoa that is associated with the other stomachs and converters the plant protein into animal protein (Richard 2001). Colon The large intestines of carnivores are usually very short and at the same time are simple. This is because it is used for absorption of salt and water. The size of the small intestines and colon is the same in terms of the diameter and doesn’t contribute any thing in terms of storage. In addition, the colon is short and it is non-pouched. The muscles that are within the walls of the digestive system make it to have a cylindrical appearance. There are some bacteria in the colon but its main activities are putrefactive (James 2006). Herbivorous possess large intestines that are specialized in the electrolyte absorption of water, production of vitamins and its absorption, and sometimes assists in fermentation of fibrous vegetation. The colons of herbivorous are usually wider when compared with the small intestines and longer. The colons in some herbivorous are pouched due to the muscles fibers that are in the intestinal walls. In addition, the first part of the colon, cecum, is usually large and serves as the main point or accessory and a basis for fermentation. Herbivorous and carnivorous have to get there nutritional nutrients from foods. There dependency on different foods makes them to have different digestive system. Carnivorous are to meat as herbivorous are to plants or vegetations. Digestion of herbivorous through begins in the mouth when enzymes in the saliva come into play while that of carnivorous begins at the stomach. There digestive system and contents are suited to their food types. The stomach concentration, the type of intestines and colons and the size and adaptability of the mouth makes their nutritional value different in digesting different type of foods. Bibliography Bramble, T., 2005. Introduction to Digestion System: Herbivorous Analysis. Journal of Sociology, Sep., 43. p. 199 – 210 Cox, L., 2007. Review : Carnivorous and adaptations to digestion. Thesis Eleven, Nov., 93. p. 142 – 148 Fenelon, J., 2007. Digestion System adaptations. American Behavioural Scientist, Aug., 51. p. 67 – 70 James, E., 2006. Digestive Systems of common animals: herbivores and carnivores. Annals of Tourism Research, May, 34 (3), p. 694 – 705. Kenneth, M., 2003. What is the significance of the ruminants’ stomachs, Annals of Quantitative Research 17(4) pp. 69 – 77. Kevin, M., 2007. Body structures and nutritional value. American Journal . Aug. 6(3), p. 56 – 68 Podkalicka, A. 2007. The relation between herbivorous and carnivorous, Convergence, Aug., 13. p. 322 – 326 Richard, L., 2001. Buildings structures of animals. New York: New York Publishers Woods, M., 2004. Digestive autonomy of mammals. Progress in Human Geography, Sept., 32. p. 48 – 50 Read More