Do deer chew their cud?
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Have you ever wondered why deer seem to chew all the time? You've
come to the right place. In this post, we're cover this intriguing question
and more.
“Chew your food well”, “don't gobble” - said moms all over the world. Most
mothers tell children not to “gobble” their food.
Well, not deer moms. They must tell their fawns the exact opposite.
“Gobble it up!”
“Just swallow it, there'll be plenty of time to chew it over!”
Because that's what deer do when they find food, especially when there's
competition around - they stuff their mouths as full of it as possible, as fast as
they can.
The funniest thing is that you can actually see it go down their throats. And up
again!
Did you know - eeew warning - that deer regurgitated and chewed their cud
again? Well, now you do. Deer use some parts of their 4-chambered stomach
to gather a lot of food at once and then sit down and ruminate it later.
In the following 30 seconds video you can easily notice that the doe sits down
having nothing in her mouth only to 'send up' some cud and start chewing it.
Facts about deer chewing cud
Mammals that eat a lot of grass, or other relatively low-quality vegetation,
have to process their food thoroughly to extract the maximum amount of
nutrition. This is achieved by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to
digestion.
For this reason, ruminant stomachs have 4 chambers: the rumen, the
reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum.
image: depositphotos
image primary source: unknown
Deer, elk and moose all ruminate. Ruminants also include cattle, sheep,
goats, buffalo, giraffes and camels.
1. The rumen , also known as a paunch, is the largest section that is
basically storage, allowing for the deer to gather a lot of food at once to
be digested later. The process of chewing cud is called rumination.
Hence the name - ruminants.
2. The reticulum is the second stomach chamber where helpful
microorganisms cause fermentation.
The reticulum will ball up the portion of food sent to it by the rumen,
mixing it with some microorganisms, and trigger the regurgitation of the
cud.
According to some sources : For deer, the cud is about the size of a
large lemon. A white-tailed deer chews its cud an average of 40 times
while mule deer average 56 chews.
Digestion in deer's second stomach alone takes roughly 16 hours.
3. When the cud moves to the third chamber ( omasum ) - water is
absorbed.
4. Next, the food enters the abomasum , the last chamber, also called the
true stomach. This is where gastric juices carry on digestion.
5. And finally, in the intestines, the food is absorbed by the animal’s body,
providing the needed nutrients.
Imagine this. A deer urinates and defecates on average of about 13 times a
day.
Since digestion also produces heat, rumen acts as a furnace in winter, helping
to keep the animals warm.
Ruminant Feeding Types
Based on the diets they prefer, ruminants can be classified into distinct
feeding types:
1. concentrate selectors
2. grass/roughage eaters
3. intermediate types
Concentrate selectors prefer to browse trees and shrubs. Deer and giraffes
are examples of these. Animals in this group of ruminants prefer plants and
plant parts high in easily digestible, nutrient dense substances such as plant
starch, protein, and fat. They are limited in their ability to digest the fibers and
cellulose in plant cell walls. That's why deer prefer legumes over grasses . [
source ]
The relative sizes of various digestive system organs differ by ruminant
feeding type.
So the way cow's rumen is built is a bit different to the way deer's rumen is.
For those interested in learning more about deer digestive system here are
some links:
www.sas.upenn.edu/ ~mytienne/deerms.pdf
Understanding the Ruminant Animal Digestive System (Mississippi
State University)
Graphic! Sliced up stomach of a doe
Quick fact: About 150 different types of animals have multiple compartments
in their stomachs, including cows, sheep, camels, yaks, deer and giraffes.
Prepared for you by Wondeerful Farm