Discover

'Feeding' is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. There are many types of feeding that animals exhibit, including:

★ filter feeding - obtaining food suspended in the water column

★ deposit feeding - obtaining food particles in soil

★ fluid feeding - obtaining food by consuming other organisms fluids

★ 'bulk feeding' - obtaining food by eating pieces of other organisms or swallowing them whole
Another classification refers to the food groups some animals specialize in, such as:

★ Carnivore - meat

★ Detritivore - decomposing material

★ Folivore - leaves

★ Frugivore - fruits

★ Granivore - seeds

★ Herbivore - plants

★ Insectivore - insects

★ Nectarivore - nectar

★ Omnivore - plants and meat

★ Piscivore - fishes

★ Sanguinivore - blood

★ Saprovore - dead matter

★ Etc.
There are also several food sources which have caused the development of specialized feeding behaviors, such as:

★ Ophiophagy: feeding on snakes

★ Hematophagy: feeding on blood

★ Coprophagy: feeding on faeces

★ Cannibalism: feeding on members of the same species

★ Trophallaxis: regurgitation of food to another animal

★ Paedophagy: feeding on the young of other species

★ Lepidophagy: of fish, feeding on the scales of other fish
In many instances, the specialization of organisms in a specific type of food source has been one of the major causes of evolution of form and function, such as:


★ mouth parts and teeth, such as in whales, vampire bats, leeches, mosquitos, predatory animals such as felines and fishes, etc

★ distinct forms of beaks in birds, such as in hawks, woodpeckers, pelicans, hummingbirds, parrots, kingfishers, etc.

★ specialized claws and other appendages, for apprehending or killing (including fingers in primates

★ changes in body colour for facilitating camouflage, disguise, setting up traps for preys, etc.

★ changes in the digestive system, such as the system of stomachs of herbivores, commensalism and symbiosis

Contents

See also

See also

★ -vore

★ -phagy