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Examples of hindgut fermenters include proboscideans and large odd-toed ungulates such as horses and rhinos, as well as small animals such as rodents, rabbits and koalas. [ 2 ] In contrast, foregut fermentation is the form of cellulose digestion seen in ruminants such as cattle which have a four-chambered stomach, [ 3 ] as well as in sloths ...
Grass is a natural source of nutrition for a horse. Equine nutrition is the feeding of horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and other equines. Correct and balanced nutrition is a critical component of proper horse care. Horses are non-ruminant herbivores of a type known as a "hindgut fermenter." Horses have only one stomach, as do humans.
However, unlike humans, they also have to digest plant fiber (largely cellulose) that comes from grass and hay. Therefore, unlike ruminants, who digest fiber in plant matter by use of a multichambered stomach, horses use microbial fermentation in a part of the digestive system known as the cecum (or caecum) to break down the cellulose.
Great apes derive significant amounts of phytanic acid from the hindgut fermentation of plant materials. [5] Monogastrics cannot digest the fiber molecule cellulose as efficiently as ruminants, though the ability to digest cellulose varies amongst species. [2] A monogastric digestive system works as soon as the food enters the mouth.
All perissodactyls are hindgut fermenters. In contrast to ruminants, hindgut fermenters store digested food that has left the stomach in an enlarged cecum, where the food begins digestion by microbes, with the fermentation continuing in the large colon. No gallbladder is present. The stomach of perissodactyls is simply built, while the cecum ...
In addition, horses are "hindgut fermenters", meaning that they digest nutrients by means of the cecum rather than by a multi-chambered stomach. [116] While this means that they extract less energy from a given amount of forage, it also means that they can digest food faster and make up the difference in efficiency by increasing their ...
In addition to wild populations, domesticated horses and donkeys are widespread due to humans. In certain parts of the world, populations of feral horses and feral donkeys exist, which are descended from domesticated animals that were released or escaped into the wild. [41] [42] Equines are monogastric hindgut fermenters. [43]
Like ruminants, some pseudoruminants may use foregut fermentation to break down cellulose in fibrous plant species (while most others are hindgut fermenters with a large cecum). But they have three-chambered stomachs (while others are monogastric) as opposed to ruminant stomachs which have four compartments.