Animal nutrition is very varied and is related to adaptation to the ecosystem in which they live and, therefore, to their way of life and their anatomy. The diversification of food is, in fact, one of the reasons why the animal kingdom is so diverse and has colonized all possible environments.
In nature, we find all kinds of animals that feed on leaves, roots, meat, carcasses, blood and even feces. Do you want to meet them? In this article on our site, we show you a complete classification of animals according to their diet
Animal feeding
Animals, during their evolutionary process, have adapted to living in many different environments, as well as eating the food that was availableMany have specialized in eating a single type of food, avoiding competition with other organisms. Due to this, animal feeding is enormously varied.
To better understand the evolutionary process of each animal and how it relates to its environment (ecology), it is necessary to know the classification of animals according to their diet. Let's go to see her!
How are animals classified according to their diet?
The classification of animals according to their diet is based on the type of matter from which they obtain their food. Thus, we have the following types of animals:
- Carnivorous animals.
- Herbivorous animals.
- Omnivorous animals.
- Decomposer animals.
- Parasites.
- Coprophagous.
Although the best known are the first three, we will now go on to talk about each of them.
Carnivorous animals
Carnivorous animals are those that feed primarily on animal matter They are also known as secondary consumers because, normally, they feed on herbivores To achieve this, they present different strategies such as great speed, pack formation, silent walking or camouflage.
Carnivores assimilate most of the food they consume, since it is very similar to their own matter. Thus, they can take a very small amount of food and survive for a long time without taking a bite. However, these animals spend a lot of energy getting food, so they tend to spend a lot of time resting.
Types of carnivorous animals
According to the method of obtaining food, we can find two types of carnivores:
- Predators: are those that obtain their food from live prey. To do this, they must search for them, chase them and catch them, which involves a great expenditure of energy. Some examples of predatory animals are cats (Felidae) or ladybugs (Coccinellidae).
- Scavengers: They feed on other dead animals. Scavengers do not need to expend energy on predation, although they do have a body prepared to avoid contracting infections. For example, they tend to have gastric acid with a very low pH. Vultures (Accipitridae) and the larvae of some flies (Sharcophagidae) are examples of scavengers.
According to their main food, we have the following types of carnivores:
- General Carnivores: These are animals that feed on any type of meat. One example is the black kite (Milvus migrans), which can consume insects, small mammals, and even carrion.
- Insectivorous or entomogaphic: they eat mainly insects. For example, many spiders (Arachnida).
- Myrmecophages: they feed on ants and termites, such as the anteater (Vermilingua).
- Piscivorous or ichthyophagous: these are animals that eat, above all, fish. An example is the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).
- Planktonic: Many aquatic predators feed primarily on plankton. This is the main food eaten by whales and other cetaceans.
Herbivorous animals
Herbivorous animals feed mainly on vegetable matter, so they have chewing mouthparts. They are also known as primary consumers and are the food of many carnivorous animals. For this reason, herbivores run very fast, form herds, camouflage themselves or present other defense strategies, such as animal aposematism.
The advantage of herbivores is the ease with which they obtain food, which means that they spend very little energy. However, these animals can assimilate and take advantage of very little of the plant matter they consume. Therefore, they need a lot of food
Types of herbivorous animals
Herbivores are classified according to the type of plant matter they feed on. Many consume a main food, although they may eat other types of food more sporadically. These are some types of herbivores:
- Generalist Herbivores: They feed on all types of plants and even many types of plant tissue. An example would be large ruminants, such as the cow (Bos taurus), which eat both herbaceous plants and branches of woody plants (they are browsers).
- Folívoros: they feed mainly on leaves. For example, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and the caterpillars of many butterflies (Lepidoptera).
- Frugivores: Their main food is fruit. Some bats, such as Eidolon helvum, and fruit fly larvae (Ceratitis capitata) are examples of frugivores.
- Granivores: Seeds are their favorite delicacy. Birds with short and broad bills feed mainly on seeds, such as the greenfinch (Chloris chloris). Another example is Messor barbarus ants.
- Xilofagos: they are animals that feed on wood. The best-known example is termites (Isoptera), although there are many other wood-eating insects, such as the bark beetle (Dendroctonus spp.).
- Rhizophages: their main food is roots. Some rhizophagous animals are the larvae of many insects, such as the beetles of the Scarabaeidae family and the carrot fly (Psila rosae).
- Nectarivores: they consume the nectar offered by the flowers in exchange for their pollination. Among the nectarivorous animals we find the bees (Anthophila) and the hoverflies (Syrphidae).
Omnivorous animals
Omnivorous animals are those that feed on both animal matter and vegetable matter To do this, they have all kinds of teeth, both canines to tear flesh like molars to chew plants. They are opportunistic animals and with a general digestive system.
Their varied diet allows omnivorous animals to adapt to all kinds of environments, whenever the weather allows it. For this reason, they often become invasive animals when they arrive in new places.
Types of omnivorous animals
Omnivorous animals are very diverse, so there are no types of omnivores as such. But, since the only limitation to their diet is their way of life, we can classify them according to the where they liveIn this case, we would have the following types of omnivores:
- Terrestrial omnivores: The most successful omnivores on land are mice (Mus spp.), wild boar (Sus scrofa) and the human being (Homo sapiens).
- Aquatic omnivores: Many species of piranhas (Characidae) are omnivores. So are some turtles, such as the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), which is only omnivorous when young.
- Flying omnivores: Birds with beaks of intermediate length and width (non-specialized) are omnivores, that is, they feed on both seed-like insects. Some examples of omnivorous birds are the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the magpie (Pica pica).
Other forms of animal feed
There are many other forms of animal feed that are largely unknown, but not unimportant. Within the classification of animals according to their diet, we can add the following types:
- Decomposers.
- Parasites.
- Coprophagous.
Decomposing or detritivorous animals
Decomposing animals feed on remains of organic matter, such as dry leaves or dead branches. During their feeding, they break down this matter and discard what is not useful to them. Among its waste are large amounts of nutrients that serve as food for plants and many types of bacteria essential for soil formation.
Among the decomposing animals we find some types of annelids, such as earthworms (Lumbricidae) and most millipedes (Diplopoda).
Parasitic animals
Parasites are living beings that "steal" nutrients from other organisms To do this, they live attached to their skin (exoparasites) or well inside them (endoparasites). It is said that these animals have a parasitic relationship with their host.
According to their host or host, we can distinguish two types of parasitic animals:
- Animal parasites: Animal exoparasites are hematophagous, which feed on blood, such as fleas (Shiphonaptera); while endoparasites feed directly on the nutrients present in the digestive system or other organs. An example of an endoparasite is the tapeworm (Taenia spp.).
- Plant parasites: These are animals that feed on plant sap. This is the case of most aphids and bedbugs (Hemiptera).
Coprophagous animals
Coprophagous feed on feces of other animals. An example is the larvae of dung beetles, such as Scarabaeus laticollis. The adults of these types of beetles drag a ball of feces into which they lay their eggs. Thus, future larvae will feed on them.
Animals that eat feces can be considered decomposers. Like these, they are essential for the recycling of organic matter and its return to the food web.
