Omnivores

According to the degree of food specialization, all animals are divided into two types - stenophages (feed on the same food or feeds similar in composition) and eurifags (omnivores).

Omnivore means the ability of animals to write in the widest range of products and organisms: plants, fungi, and other animals.

Omnivores (eurifagi) live mainly in cold and temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. The harsh conditions of nature forced these animals to change their type of food in the process of evolution in such a way as to adapt to survival in the cold, the conditions of the changing seasons and the periodicity of the appearance of certain food groups. So, in the summer they had to eat plants, in the winter time to hunt for other animals. As a result, they are accustomed to changing the diet, choosing the most suitable food for themselves, depending on the circumstances that force them. There are a lot of these animals, much more than could be expected.

This group includes completely dissimilar animals. These include, for example, brown bear, pig, hedgehog, badger, raccoon dog, squirrel, wild boar, gray rat, mouse, rat, gray crow, and many others. All of them are characterized by a mixed type of nutrition and therefore are called the term "omnivores." Examples can be continued.

In addition to these, some primates, including chimpanzees, belong to this group. Various birds rides berries and nectar, simultaneously with insects, worms, fish and small rodents (chickens, crows and others). Certain species of lizards, turtles, fish (piranha) are also omnivores. Some species of omnivores are able to eat even carrion.

To make a list according to the given combination of "Omnivores" is quite difficult, because there are a lot of them and they can change the type of food. For example, chimpanzees, whose DNA is 99% identical to ours, eat mainly fruits, seeds and nuts, animal food in their diet is only 5%. However, there are cases when they hunted not only for ants, birds, and some species of small mammals, but even for other primates (baboons, monkeys, half-monkeys of the galago, colobus, potto).

All organisms that belong to the same group by type of nutrition belong to the same trophic level (first, second, etc.). Omnivores belong directly to several trophic levels, their participation in each is determined by the composition of their diet.

The concepts of “carnivorous” and “herbivorous” (zoophages and phytophages) often turn out to be rather arbitrary with a more careful study of many animal species. Most predators sometimes eat fruit, and herbivores eat insects and bird eggs.

Many eurifagi (bear, badger, wild boar, marten, fox and others) are able to periodically change the groups of food they consume. This is a forced adaptation to life in conditions with an unstable food supply.

Omnivores consume both plant and animal food. From this point of view, a person, by biological definition, also belongs to this group. This fully confirms his anatomy and physiology. A person can successfully eat even raw meat, quite safely digesting it (examples: the peoples of the North eat raw fish and meat in fresh, frozen and dry form; the Japanese also eat raw fish and unprocessed seafood; Italians traditionally enjoy carpaccio, etc.)

Omnivores have an intermediate mindset, they are quite circumspect and calm, like herbivores, and at the same time able to be active in the search for prey, like predators (carnivores). They are able to remember information about the environment that is useful to them and reproduce it if necessary, they know how to get to food or find a safe shelter.

One can judge what the beast predominantly feeds on by the structural features of its jaws.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/F54/


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