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Herbivore

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Biology

   A deer and two fawns feeding on some foliage
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   A deer and two fawns feeding on some foliage

   A herbivore is often defined as any organism that eats only plants. By
   that definition, many fungi, some bacteria, many animals, about 1% of
   flowering plants and some protists can be considered herbivores. Many
   people restrict the term herbivore to animals. 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.

   In zoology, an herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat primarily
   plant matter (rather than meat). Although such animals are sometimes
   referred to as being vegetarian, this term is more properly reserved
   for humans who choose not to eat meat as opposed to animals that are
   unable to make such choices.

   Herbivores can be further classified into various sub-groups, such as
   frugivores, which eat mainly fruit; folivores, which specialize in
   eating leaves; nectarivores, which feed on nectar; among herbivorous
   insects and other arthropods, the level of feeding specialization can
   be far more fine-tuned, including seed-eaters (" granivores"),
   pollen-eaters (" palynivores"), plant fluid-feeders (" mucivores"), and
   those specialized to feed on wood (" xylophages") or roots ("
   rhizophages"). In other animals, the degree of specialization is not so
   advanced, however, and many fruit- and leaf-eating animals also eat
   other parts of plants, notably roots and seeds. The diets of some
   herbivorous animals vary with the seasons, especially in the temperate
   zones, where different plant foods are most available at different
   times of year.

   There is a misperception that if an animal is herbivorous, it
   represents less danger to humans than a carnivore (or, sometimes, no
   danger at all). This is not logically sound; few animals, even
   carnivores, will seek humans as a food source, but any animal will
   attack a human if necessary to defend itself. For example, in national
   parks such as the United States' Yellowstone Park, bison represent
   significantly more danger to humans than wolves, which are likely to
   avoid people. Of Africa's Big Five game (a term coined by hunters in
   Africa to refer to the five most dangerous animals to hunt: Rhinoceros,
   Leopard, Cape Buffalo, Elephant and Lion), three are herbivores.

   Herbivores form an important link in the food chain as they transform
   the sun's energy stored in the plants to food that can be consumable by
   carnivores and omnivores up the food chain. As such, they are termed
   the primary consumers in the food chain.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore"
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