Meet the Munch Bunch!


Herbivores are animals that eat only plants. But what part of the plantAny living thing that is not an animal. Plants live on sunlight and water instead of food. Plants generally cannot move on their own, and are not able to smell, hear, see, or touch.: leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, bark, roots? The answer to that question depends on the kind of herbivoreAn animal that feeds only on plants (herbs, grasses, and vegetables). you're looking at!


Grazers eat grass. Simple, right? But some grazers eat only special parts or types of grass. For example, zebras use their front teet to clip off the tips of tall grasses. Wildebeest eat the part of the grass growing closest to the ground. Zebra and wildebeest often feed in the exact same areas. They can do that because they each are eating something slightly different.


Browsers eat leaves from trees and bushes. Koalas and pandas sit among their food as they eat. Giraffes are famous for their 18-inch-long tongues that they use to grab and pull leaves off of trees. A tapir uses its flexible snout to do the same thing on bushes. It takes a lot of chewing to get a leaf ready for digestion in a stomach, unless you're one of the many kinds of leaf-eating monkeys. They have a special, extra stomach that contains special bacteriaVery tiny plants. Bacteria are so small that they can only be seen through a microscope. Some kinds of bacteria cause disease. Others do useful things, like making soil richer. to help break down tough leaves.


Frugivores eat only fruit. A fruit dove can open its mouth wide enough to swallow a small fruit whole. The pulp gets digested in the birdAn animal that has wings and is covered with feathers. Birds have a backbone, are warm-blooded, produce young from eggs, and walk on their two legs. Most can fly.'s stomach, but the seed passes right through and ends up on the forest floorThe ground layer of a rain forest. in a plop of fertilizer. Fruit bats have a different way of getting the goodness out of fruit. They bite off a piece, then press it against the roof of their mouth with their tongue to squeeze out all the juices, then spit the dry flesh out.


Some animals eat mostly roots and shoots. Watch for them as you scroll through the animals on this site.


Many birds are seed eaters. Have you seen some in your neighborhood?