the.com/herbivore
plants don't fight back, yet eating them takes more brutal hardware than hunting ever did
means An animal that feeds on plants, leaves, fruit, or other vegetation rather than on other animals.
from From Latin herba, "grass" or "green plant," plus -vorus, "devouring" (from vorare, "to swallow whole, gulp down" — the same hungry root behind devour and voracious). The pairing was assembled in scientific Latin, then taken into English in the early 19th century as naturalists sorted the eaters into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
- four stomachs
- cows ferment grass in chambered guts for days
- hippo body count
- a vegetarian kills more humans than lions
- eternal teeth
- elephants grow six sets, then starve toothless
- gut empire
- trillions of microbes do the actual digesting
- deadliest land animal
- that title belongs to plant-eating hippos
african elephant — largest land herbivore, weighs up to 6,350 kg and eats 180 kg of vegetation daily
blue whale — largest herbivore ever, 173 metric tons, feeds on krill in antarctic waters
giraffes of serengeti — tallest herbivores at up to 5.5 meters, browse acacia trees across tanzania
giant pandas of china — endangered bamboo specialists in sichuan province, eat 26-84 pounds of bamboo daily