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Herbivory is of extreme ecological importance and prevalence among insects.Perhaps one third (or 500,000) of all described species are herbivores. [4] Herbivorous insects are by far the most important animal pollinators, and constitute significant prey items for predatory animals, as well as acting as major parasites and predators of plants; parasitic species often induce the formation of galls.
For example, increased abundance of herbivores such as deer decrease plant diversity and species richness, [37] while other large mammalian herbivores like bison control dominant species which allows other species to flourish. [38] Plant-herbivore interactions can also operate so that plant communities mediate herbivore communities. [39]
Various carnivorans, with feliforms to the left, and caniforms to the right. Carnivora is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh. Members of this order are called carnivorans, or colloquially carnivores, though the term more properly refers to any meat-eating organisms, and some carnivoran species are omnivores or herbivores.
For many millions of years, hyraxes, proboscideans, and other afrotherian mammals were the primary terrestrial herbivores in Africa, just as odd-toed ungulates were in North America. Through the middle to late Eocene , many different species existed. [ 27 ]
Herbivores, as primary consumers, eat the plant material directly to digest and absorb the nutrients, while carnivores and other animals on higher trophic levels indirectly acquire the nutrients by eating the herbivores or other animals that have eaten the herbivores.
Consumers are typically viewed as predatory animals such as meat-eaters. However, herbivorous animals and parasitic fungi are also consumers. To be a consumer, an organism does not necessarily need to be carnivorous; it could only eat plants (producers), in which case it would be located in the first level of the food chain above the producers.
For example, buffalo milk is used to make mozzarella in Italy and gulab jamun dessert in India, [71] while sheep milk is used to make blue Roquefort cheese in France. [72] Beef is a food source high in zinc, selenium, phosphorus, iron, and B vitamins. [73] Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef, but has a higher protein content. [74]
For example, there are roughly 3,300 species of living lizards and approximately 3% of them eat at least some plants. [4] Though the exact definition of herbivory varies significantly between scientists, most define herbivorous lepidosaurs as those that consume plants for approximately 70-90% of its diet. [5] [6]