Now where did I leave my keys?

A golden jackal seems to be thinking of something.

Does this hood make me look fat?

A King Cobra opening its hood.

Wildlife Word - omnivorous

We’ve defined carnivores as meat eaters and herbivores as plant eaters. What type of animal eats both meat and plants?

omnivorous

Pronunciation: \äm-ˈniv-rəs, -ˈni-və-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin omnivorus, from omni- + -vorus -vorous
Date: circa 1656

1 : feeding on both animal and vegetable substances
2 : avidly taking in everything as if devouring or consuming <an omnivorous reader>
— om·niv·o·rous·ly adverb

Omnivores “devour all” and are very opportunistic — if they see food they like, they eat it!

Is this my best side?

A great close up of an ostrich.

Wildlife Words - folivorous

We’ve defined herbivores as the plant eaters and identified a frugivorous animal as a fruit eater. The next Wildlife Word is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary but is often used by biologists…

folivorous

Function: adjective

: Leaf-eating.

In our collection, Keelan + Krista Koala (Southern) represent an example of a folivorous animal as they enjoy munching on eucalyptus leaves. The leaf eaters have to carefully conserve their energy — leaves do not provide a lot of nutrients. Many folivorous animals have long digestive tracks to extract as much energy as they can from their hard-to-eat diet.

Wildlife Words - frugivorous

In our last post on Wildlife Words, we learned about herbivores. We can use more specific terms to describe these type of animals, and our first related word is…

frugivorous

Pronunciation: \frü-ˈji-və-rəs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin frug-, frux + English -vorous
Date: 1713

: feeding on fruit
— fru·gi·vore \ˈfrü-ji-ˌvȯr\ noun

Frugivores are efficient eaters and enjoy the sugars and vitamins that come with eating fruit.