Comparative GI tract

Question 1

Alloenzymatic digesters

Answer 1

rely on enzymes from microbes inhabiting digestive tract for nutrient digestion and absorption

Question 2

Autoenzymatic digesters

Answer 2

rely on enzymes produced by own body to digest and absorb nutrients

Question 3

Are hind gut fermenters autoenzymatic or alloenzymatic?

Answer 3

Alloenzymatic

Question 4

Carnivores

Answer 4

eat almost exclusively meat or animal tissue

Question 5

Omnivores

Answer 5

eat combinations of animal tissue and plants

Question 6

Herbivores

Answer 6

eat almost exclusively plants

Question 7

Insectivores

Answer 7

eat insects

Question 8

Granivores

Answer 8

eat seeds and nuts

Question 9

Frugivores

Answer 9

eat fruits

Question 10

What are the three types of hind gut fermenters?

Answer 10

Cecal, colonic, and cecal-colonic

Question 11

What process is a major energy source for herbivores?

Answer 11

fermentation

Question 12

Cecotrophes

Answer 12

animals that eat their own feces to get more nutrients

Question 13

What is the main energy source in rumens?

Answer 13

Volatile Fatty Acids

Question 14

Where are Volatile Fatty Acid’s absorbed in the digestive tract?

Answer 14

The papillae of the rumen

Question 15

What are the four components of a rumen’s stomach?

Answer 15

rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum

Question 16

What is the function of the retiuclum?

Answer 16

moves ingested food into the rumen or into the omasum and regurgitation of ingesta during rumination, stores foreign objects

Question 17

What is the function of the rumen?

Answer 17

a larger fermentation vat with a high population of microorganisms

Question 18

What is the function of the omasum?

Answer 18

absorbs water and nutrients

Question 19

What is the function of the abomasum?

Answer 19

acts at the true stomach, grinds and breaks down food

Question 20

How many stomachs do birds have?

Answer 20

two

Question 21

What is the second stomach in birds referred to as?

Answer 21

the gizzard

Question 22

Where does fermentation occur in some avian species?

Answer 22

the crop

Question 23

What is the enteric nervous system and what does it regulate?

Answer 23

the local nervous system of the digestive nervous system, regulates motility, secretion, and blood flow in gi tract

Question 24

What is the shape of the reticulum?

Answer 24

Honeycombed

Question 25

What is an intermediate feeder?

Answer 25

Animals that have feeding strategies of both browsers and grazers

Question 26

What is an example of intermediate feeders?

Answer 26

sheep and goats

Question 27

What is a browser?

Answer 27

tend to eat more digestible plant parts like tree and shrub leaves, herbs, fruit, etc.
much of this material does not require fermentation and can be digested by the animal (smaller rumen and reticulum)
concentrate selectors

Question 28

What is an example of a browser?

Answer 28

deer, moose, giraffes

Question 29

What is a grazer?

Answer 29

Eat high fiber diets high in plant cellulose (down in the grass) and have large rumens with well-developed omasum
bulk and roughage eaters

Question 30

What is an example of a grazer?

Answer 30

cattle, buffalo, camels, and antelopes

Question 31

What factor contributes to differences in gi tracts and teeth?

Answer 31

diet

Question 32

What is a cecal fermenter?

Answer 32

have enlarged cecum for fermentation, rabbit

Question 33

What is a colonic fermenter?

Answer 33

horse

Question 34

What is a cecal-colonic fermenter?

Answer 34

elephant and manatee

Question 35

T/F: fermentation is a major energy source for carnivores and omnivores

Answer 35

false, it generates few calories for carn/omni, but is a major source for herbivores