Ruminant Digestive Tract
A ruminant is a category of animals that are able to digest plant-based, difficult to digest food sources that other animals cannot eat. Ruminants include cattle, sheep, goats, giraffes, deer, and many other species of animals. Ruminants do this with their extremely large stomach which is full of microorganisms that allow them to ferment these hard to digest plant-based foods.
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Ruminants have ONE stomach that is separated into FOUR compartment. The four compartments of the stomach are called the rumen, the omasum, the reticulum, and the abomasum. The rumen is where the majority of the fermentation and breakdown of food materials occurs. The omasum is where water and other nutrients are absorbed into the body. The reticulum assists in determining when feed material is small enough to move forward in the digestive tract into the omasum. If the feed material is too big, it will be funneled back into the rumen for further fermentation. The abomasum is known as the "true" stomach and is similar to the stomach in other species (such as humans).
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