Wildlife Words - herbivorous

We’ve spent the last few posts on Wildlife Words talking about meat eaters, and now it’s time to learn about another way for animals to eat…

herbivorous

Pronunciation: \ˌ(h)ər-ˈbiv-rəs, -ˈbi-və-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: New Latin herbivorus, from Latin herba grass + -vorus -vorous
Date: 1661

: feeding on plants
— her·biv·o·ry \-ˈbi-və-rē\ noun

(Source: Merriam-Webster)

Herbivores love to eat plants…  If they were humans, we would call them vegetarians!

While herbivores are not meat eaters, they can still be dangerous and will attack other animals (and humans) to defend themselves.  The elephant is a great example!

Wildlife Words - scavenge

Carnivores are meat eaters and many find meat through predation. There is another method to eating meat, and that strategy is to:

scavenge

Pronunciation: \ˈska-vənj, -vinj\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): scav·enged; scav·eng·ing
Etymology: back-formation from scavenger
Date: circa 1644

transitive verb

1 a (1): to remove (as dirt or refuse) from an area (2): to clean away dirt or refuse from : cleanse <scavenge a street> b: to feed on (carrion or refuse)

2 a: to remove (burned gases) from the cylinder of an internal combustion engine after a working stroke b: to remove (as an undesirable constituent) from a substance or region by chemical or physical means c: to clean and purify (molten metal) by taking up foreign elements in chemical union

3: to salvage from discarded or refuse material; also : to salvage usable material from

intransitive verb

: to work or act as a scavenger

(Source: Merriam-Webster)

We have a scavenger in our Noah’s Pals collection and you might be surprised to know that it is the Marabou Stork!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wildlife Words - predation

In the last post, we learned that carnivore refers to meat eaters. The main way that animals find meat is through…

predation

Pronunciation: \pri-ˈdā-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English predacion, from Latin praedation-, praedatio, from praedari
Date: 15th century

1 : the act of preying or plundering : depredation

2 : a mode of life in which food is primarily obtained by the killing and consuming of animals

(Source: Merriam-Webster)

Predation is a reality in the animal kingdom and some animals need to eat other animals to survive. While animals like Lance + Linda Lion look cute, they are dangerous predators that hunt and eat other species.

So Cute: Dalmatian plus Kitty

A cute picture of a dalmatian and a kitty…

They are waiting for vaccination shots and the dog reassures the feline that all will be okay.

Wildlife Word - carnivorous

Our last set of Wildlife Words looked at the times of day when animals like to be active:
diurnal (day)
nocturnal (night)
crepuscular (twilight)
matutinal (dawn)
vespertine (dusk)

We now turn to words that describe how animals like to eat, and our first word in this group is…

carnivorous

Pronunciation: \kär-ˈni-v(ə-)rəs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin carnivorus, from carn-, caro + -vorus -vorous
Date: 1592

1: subsisting or feeding on animal tissues

2 of a plant : subsisting on nutrients obtained from the breakdown of animal protoplasm (as of insects)

3: of or relating to the carnivores4: rapacious
— car·niv·o·rous·ly adverb
— car·niv·o·rous·ness noun
— car·niv·ory noun

(Source: Merriam-Webster)

Carnivores are the meat eaters of the animal kingdom…  In future posts, we will learn about two main ways these carnivores seek their food.