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.