Five Animal Vegetarians

Elephants are the largest land mammal. They eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Up to eighty percent of their day can be spent feeding or looking for food. Sometimes they will dig up ground looking for salt or minerals. Tree bark is one of their favorite foods, and is a source of calcium and fiber. Elephants can consume over 300 pounds of vegetation daily. Their diet varies seasonally – in the wet period the eat more grasses and during the dry one they eat more trees and shrubs. Elephant dung and the seeds they eliminate and leave on ground contribute significantly to their ecosystems.

Gorillas are the largest primates in the world and they eat almost an entirely planted-based diet, though they may at times also eat termites, ants or worms. Fruits, leaves, shoots, seeds, flowers are the great majority of what they eat, and they can consume up to forty to fifty pounds a day. Adult males are massive, weighing 350-450 pounds and have tremendous physical strength. Females typically weigh 150-250 pounds. In the wild gorillas can live thirty to forty years, and in captivity about ten years longer. Tragically, gorilla meat is considered a delicacy by some humans and it is served in some restaurants.

Wild horses consume a diet of 80-90 percent grasses. For example, in an area of Colorado the horses living there consume galleta grass, Indian ricegrass, winterfat, and needle-and-thread grass. (They also eat green rabbitbrush, shadscale, and black sage). Horses have a simple stomach (not the compartmentalized ruminant one cows have) and a small intestine up to seventy feet long for digestion of plant material. Naturally horses tend to consume small amounts frequently, but domestication has changed that behavior, says an Ohio State bulletin. Some plants are toxic to horses though, so domesticated horses must be fed carefully managed diets. Trailblazer magazine published an article about some of those plants. A small amount of oleander (one ounce) is reportedly enough to kill a horse.

Hippos spend most of their days in water, but come out at night to graze on grasses. They can eat 80 – 150 pounds of grass in a day, according to the Honolulu Zoo. Though in water they appear docile and mostly move very slowly, on land they can outrun a human in a short sprint. Males can weigh up to 9,000 pounds.

Giraffes don’t consume nearly as much as grass as hippos or horses. The prefer leaves and buds on trees and shrubs, flowers and fruit and vines. Specifically, Acacia leaves and shoots are a big part of their diet. They also adapt their diets to the regions they forage within, and by what is available seasonally. About three-quarters of a giraffe’s day is spend foraging and feeding during the dry season. Sometimes they feed on moonlight nights. Acacia seeds are dispersed by giraffes in unshaded areas, which helps grow more plants.

Image Credit: Paul Maritz – Wiki Commons

Read more: Conscious Consumer, Nature & Wildlife, Wildlife

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Jane R.

7:22PM PDT on Apr 22, 2012

So what? Many animals eat meat. They hunt their prey just as some humans do. Humans hunt deer, geese and other animals to eat. It has been this way since the beginning of time!! Nothing wrong with this. It's called keeping a balance of all species. Otherwise they would be overpopulated, not enough food to feed them all, and the world would be overun with them, just as it is now with too many people living on the earth. Maybe people should be limited to two children per couple. If they have more they should have to pay a large fine or get "fixed". The world cannot sustain everyone at the rate people are multiplying!!!

send a green star

Jacqueline F.

8:32PM PST on Feb 24, 2012

thank you for sharing!

Debbie C.

8:28AM PST on Feb 23, 2012

Thank you for the information. I didn't knew all this. I learned something today. Thanks.

Sarah M.

3:52PM PST on Feb 16, 2012

cool

Malgorzata Z.

12:49PM PST on Feb 16, 2012

Szkoda, że ludzie nie są wegetarianami, wszyscy.

Penny C.

12:40PM PST on Feb 14, 2012

Interesting,thanks.

colleen p.

12:39PM PST on Feb 14, 2012

elephants are not big because they "are vegeterian", because they are herbivores they are huge. and even then, eat grass all day and do a lowsy job of it and poop out a lot of grass fibers.

2:25PM PST on Feb 6, 2012

biased. where is the hoatzin bird? why is it not on the list?

Carrie Anne B.

9:17AM PST on Feb 6, 2012

interesting article, thanks for sharing :)

3:57AM PST on Feb 6, 2012

oh yes, totaly, because an animal is a herbivore, we can be too, we can grow a larger cecum easy, and digest celloulose like a pro!

anyone can say the oppiste for carnivores. or are they perpetualy sick? they can eat raw meat with no problem.

or the vulture. they can eat rotting carrion and look how super cool they are.

or what about insects who eat plant juices? they seem to do fine, even if they live short lives. and nectervores? Table suger and corn syrup is no good for us.

*head desk*

Killer whales eat animals, they are big, strong and smart and can live long lives. so why can't we?

and no. don't go tell me we are biologicaly frugivores or herbivores. I'll just have to link you to science pages again, or a video of a pig scavanging meat.

a scientific page won't be biased like you believe. I am really considering uploading screen captures to youtube to make my own "shit people say" for shit vegans say. such as "oh they must of been paied off by the meat industry to say we can digest flesh, well we cannot"
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/carn_herb_comparison.html biased?
http://beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-6c.shtml biased?
http://www.thepigsite.com/pighealth/article/3/digestive-system pig
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b762/b762_5.html horse
http://www.springfieldrabbits.co.uk/web%20digestive%20system.gif