L5 - Carnivore Husbandry Flashcards
What is a carnivore?
An animal that derives all its nutrients from meat through wither predation or scavenging
What are the 2 types of carnivore?
- Obligate - purely eats meat
2. Facultative - can eat other feed items such as plants (can be called omnivores)
Name 5 examples for a carnivorous diet
- Sharp teeth
- Strong jaws
- Digestive tract
- Slender bodies - enable fast running
- Paws vs. Feet - fast on their feet and claws
What is the intestinal system of a carnivore like?
- Short intestine and colon, small caecum
- they can go for days without feeding, it is healthy for them to do completely empty their digestive systems
- smaller stomachs
What do cats rely on to catch their prey?
Stealth and surprise
- patterned coat
- very accurate senses
What are the 3 body adaptions of cats?
- Short jaw - powerful lethal bite
- Eyes - ability to see in low light
- Carnassial teeth also on the 4th upper premolar having blade like cusps for slight through meat
Are cats solitary?
It is always assumed, but lions and cheetahs are hugely social cats
What diet do pandas have?
- They’re herbivorous despite having carnivorous adaptions
- low energy and low activity lifestyle
What 5 carnivorous adaptions do bears and racoons have?
- Larger body size - low metabolic rate so can cope with the slower energy release diet they have. Store fat and utilizing at better
- Powerful limbs and claws
- Subscapularis muscle - allows climbing without the humerus bone popping out
- Good sense of smell
- Lack of carnassial teeth
Describe bear hibernation
- in the winter months
- metabolic rate and temp don’t drop but heart rate can go to as low as 10-12 bpm
- don’t sleep all the way through
What is Torpor?
a short term reduction of body temp on cool days. Torpor is driven by ambient temperature and food availability
What is Hibernation?
it is an extended torpor - hibernation is associated with day length and hormone changes
What 3 features are associated with both torpor and hibernation?
- controlled reduction of body temp
- a fall in O2 composition and breathing, HR and metabolic rate
- restriction of blood flow to main organs, and the ability to awake spontaneously whatever the outside temperature
Why do animals hibernate>
It is a biological mechanism some animals use o conserve energy and cope with food shortages - during hibernation body fat is used slow
Do bears truly hibernate?
Compared to true hibernators like ground squirrels, bears metabolic rates doesn’t drop very much, and body temp is only reduced slightly.
And bears can go for 100 days + without getting up, feeding, passing waste etc. Ground squirrels have to get up every week or so
