wiz-icon
MyQuestionIcon
MyQuestionIcon
1
You visited us 1 times! Enjoying our articles? Unlock Full Access!
Question

Why only grass can be digested by herbivores animal why not by human beings explain

Open in App
Solution

Because humans do not have a digestive system adapted to process cellulose. It requires a much longer and larger digestive tract to house the specialized bacteria that do this. There are a few different strategies herbivores use to process plant matter - for example, rabbits pass everything through their digestive system twice. (They eat their own poo after the first pass - they don’t eat it on the second pass through). Ruminants have multiple chambers where grasses are processed in different ways, and a very different digestive pH from ours.

Humans evolved to be predatory omnivores - our digestive systems are adapted to eating a wide variety of different foods, but none of them particularly hard to process - and skewed toward meat (which is the easiest food to digest - hence why carnivores have the shortest digestive tracts).


flag
Suggest Corrections
thumbs-up
2
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
similar_icon
Related Videos
thumbnail
lock
Ecosystem
CHEMISTRY
Watch in App
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
CrossIcon