You are on page 1of 6

Omnivore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jump to navigationJump to search

Examples of omnivores. From left to right: Humans,[1] dogs[2], pigs, walking


catfish, American crow, gravel ant.
An omnivore (/'?mn?v??r/) is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on
both plant and animal matter.[3] Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and
animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and
metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed.[4] Often, they have
the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into
their diet.[5][6][7]

Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved


sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily
carnivorous organisms (Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous
organisms (Artiodactyla).[8][9][10] What this means is that physical
characteristics are often not reliable indicators of whether an animal has the
ability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal matter. Owing to
the wide range of entirely unrelated organisms independently evolving the
capability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal materials, no
generalizations about the anatomical features of all omnivores can realistically be
made.[11]

The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed
into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivores
include maned wolves and orangutans;[12][13] insectivores include swallows and pink
fairy armadillos;[14][15] granivores include large ground finches and mice.

All of these animals are omnivores, yet still fall into special niches in terms of
feeding behavior and preferred foods. Being omnivores gives these animals more food
security in stressful times or makes possible living in less consistent
environments.[16]

Contents
1 Etymology and definitions
1.1 Classification, contradictions and difficulties
2 Omnivorous species
2.1 General
2.2 Omnivorous mammals
2.3 Other species
3 See also
4 References
Etymology and definitions
The word omnivore derives from the Latin omnis (all), and vora, from vorare, (to
eat or devour), having been coined by the French and later adopted by the English
in the 1800s.[17] Traditionally the definition for omnivory was entirely behavioral
by means of simply "including both animal and vegetable tissue in the diet.[18]" In
more recent times, with the advent of advanced technological capabilities in fields
like gastroenterology, biologists have formulated a standardized variation of
omnivore used for labeling a species' actual ability to obtain energy and nutrients
from materials.[19][20] This has subsequently conditioned two context specific
definitions.

Behavioral: This definition is used to specify if a species or individual is


actively consuming both plant and animal materials.[20][21][22][23] (e.g. "vegans
do not participate in the omnivore based diet.")
Physiological: This definition is often used in academia to specify species that
have the capability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal
matter.[24][page needed][6][19][25] (e.g. "humans are omnivores due to their
capability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal materials.")
The taxonomic utility of omnivore's traditional and behavioral definition is
limited, since the diet, behavior, and phylogeny of one omnivorous species might be
very different from that of another: for instance, an omnivorous pig digging for
roots and scavenging for fruit and carrion is taxonomically and ecologically quite
distinct from an omnivorous chameleon that eats leaves and insects. The term
"omnivory" is also not always comprehensive because it does not deal with mineral
foods such as salt licks and the consumption of plant and animal material for
medical purposes which would not otherwise be consumed (i.e. zoopharmacognosy)
within non-omnivores.

Classification, contradictions and difficulties


Though Carnivora is a taxon for species classification, no such equivalent exists
for omnivores, as omnivores are widespread across multiple taxonomic clades. The
Carnivora order does not include all carnivorous species, and not all species
within the Carnivora taxon are carnivorous.[26] It is common to find physiological
carnivores consuming materials from plants or physiological herbivores consuming
material from animals, e.g. felines eating grass and deer eating birds.[27][28]
From a behavioral aspect, this would make them omnivores, but from the
physiological standpoint, this may be due to zoopharmacognosy. Physiologically,
animals must be able to obtain both energy and nutrients from plant and animal
materials to be considered omnivorous. Thus, such animals are still able to be
classified as carnivores and herbivores when they are just obtaining nutrients from
materials originating from sources that do not seemingly complement their
classification. For instance, it is well documented that animals such as giraffes,
camels, and cattle will gnaw on bones, preferably dry bones, for particular
minerals and nutrients.[29] Felines, which are usually regarded as obligate
carnivores, occasionally eat grass to regurgitate indigestibles (e.g. hair, bones),
aid with hemoglobin production, and as a laxative.[30]

Occasionally, it is found that animals historically classified as carnivorous may


deliberately eat plant material. For example, in 2013, it was considered that
American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) may be physiologically omnivorous
once investigations had been conducted on why they occasionally eat fruits. It was
suggested that alligators probably ate fruits both accidentally but also
deliberately.[31]

"Life-history omnivores" is a specialized classification given to organisms that


change their eating habits during their life cycle.[32] Some species, such as
grazing waterfowl like geese, are known to eat mainly animal tissue at one stage of
their lives, but plant matter at another.[33] The same is true for many insects,
such as beetles in the family Meloidae,[34] which begin by eating animal tissue as
larvae, but change to eating plant matter after they mature. Likewise, many
mosquito species in early life eat plants or assorted detritus, but as they mature,
males continue to eat plant matter and nectar whereas the females (such as those of
Anopheles, Aedes and Culex) also eat blood to reproduce effectively.[35]

Omnivorous species
General
Although cases exist of herbivores eating meat and carnivores eating plant matter,
the classification "omnivore" refers to the adaptations and main food source of the
species in general, so these exceptions do not make either individual animals or
the species as a whole omnivorous. For the concept of "omnivore" to be regarded as
a scientific classification, some clear set of measurable and relevant criteria
would need to be considered to differentiate between an "omnivore" and other
categories, e.g. faunivore, folivore, and scavenger.[36] Some researchers argue
that evolution of any species from herbivory to carnivory or carnivory to herbivory
would be rare except via an intermediate stage of omnivory.[37]

Omnivorous mammals
Various mammals are omnivorous in the wild, such as species of pigs,[38] badgers,
bears, coatis, civets, hedgehogs, opossums, skunks, sloths, squirrels,[39]
raccoons, chipmunks,[40] mice,[41] and rats.[42] Hominidae, including humans and
chimpanzees, are also omnivores.[7][43][44]

Most bear species are omnivores


Most bear species are omnivores,[45] but individual diets can range from almost
exclusively herbivorous to almost exclusively carnivorous, depending on what food
sources are available locally and seasonally. Polar bears are classified as
carnivores, both taxonomically (they are in the order Carnivora), and behaviorally
(they subsist on a largely carnivorous diet). Depending on the species of bear,
there is generally a preference for one class of food, as plants and animals are
digested differently. Wolf subspecies (including wolves, dogs, dingoes, and
coyotes) eat some plant matter, but they have a general preference and are
evolutionarily geared towards meat.[46] Also, the maned wolf is a canid whose diet
is naturally 50% plant matter.

While most mammals may display "omnivorous" behavior patterns depending on


conditions of supply, culture, season and so on, they will generally prefer a
particular class of food, to which their digestive processes are adapted. Like most
arboreal species, most squirrels are primarily granivores, subsisting on nuts and
seeds.[47] But like virtually all mammals, squirrels avidly consume some animal
food when it becomes available. For example, the American eastern gray squirrel has
been introduced by humans to parts of Britain, continental Europe and South Africa.
Where it flourishes, its effect on populations of nesting birds is often serious,
largely because of consumption of eggs and nestlings.[48][49]

Other species
Various birds are omnivorous, with diets varying from berries and nectar to
insects, worms, fish, and small rodents. Examples include cassowaries, chickens,
crows[50] and related corvids, keas, rallidae, and rheas. In addition, some
lizards, turtles, fish (such as piranhas and catfish), and invertebrates are also
omnivorous.

Quite often, mainly herbivorous creatures will eagerly eat small quantities of
animal food when it becomes available. Although this is trivial most of the time,
omnivorous or herbivorous birds, such as sparrows, often will feed their chicks
insects while food is most needed for growth.[51] On close inspection it appears
that nectar-feeding birds such as sunbirds rely on the ants and other insects that
they find in flowers, not for a richer supply of protein, but for essential
nutrients such as cyanocobalamin that are absent from nectar. Similarly, monkeys of
many species eat maggoty fruit, sometimes in clear preference to sound fruit.[52]
When to refer to such animals as omnivorous, or otherwise, is a question of context
and emphasis, rather than of definition.

See also
Consumer-resource systems
Evolution (biology)
Food chain
Food energy
Ingestion
List of diets
Mesocarnivore
Productivity (ecology)
References
Beasley, DeAnna; Koltz, Amanda; Lambert, Joanna; Fierer, Noah; Dunn, Rob (29 July
2015). "The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human
Microbiome". PLOS ONE. 10 (7): e0134116. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134116. PMC
4519257. PMID 26222383.
Dewey, T. & Bhagat, S. (2002). "Canis lupus familiaris". Animal Diversity Web.
Retrieved 3 April 2016.
Brooker RJ (2008). Biology. McGraw-Hill. p. 1326. ISBN 0072956208.
Pond G, Ullrey DE, Baer CK (2018). Encyclopedia of Animal Science - (Two-Volume
Set). McGraw-Hill. p. 1350. ISBN 0072956208.
Bradford, Alina (25 January 2016). "Reference: Omnivores: Facts About Flexible
Eaters". Livescience. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
"Omnivore". National Geographic Education. National Geographic Society. 21 January
2011. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
McArdle, John. "Humans are Omnivores". Vegetarian Resource Group. Retrieved 6
October 2013.
"Why Your Dog's Pedigree Goes Back 40 Million Years". About.com Education.
Retrieved 2 April 2016.
"Evolutionary History of Pigs � Domesticating Wilbur". blogs.lt.vt.edu. Retrieved
2 April 2016.
"Order Cetartiodactyla - Even-toed ungulates (and whales)".
www.ultimateungulate.com. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
"omnivore | biology". Encyclop�dia Britannica. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
Motta-Junior, J. C.; Talamoni, S. A.; Lombardi, J. A.; Simokomaki, K. (1 October
1996). "Diet of the maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus, in central Brazil". Journal
of Zoology. 240 (2): 277�284. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1996.tb05284.x. ISSN 1469-
7998.
Galdikas, Birut� M. F. (1 February 1988). "Orangutan diet, range, and activity at
Tanjung Puting, Central Borneo". International Journal of Primatology. 9 (1): 1�35.
doi:10.1007/BF02740195. ISSN 0164-0291.
McCarty, John P.; Winkler, David W. (1 January 1999). "Foraging Ecology and Diet
Selectivity of Tree Swallows Feeding Nestlings". The Condor. 101 (2): 246�254.
doi:10.2307/1369987. JSTOR 1369987.
Superina, Mariella (1 March 2011). "Husbandry of a pink fairy armadillo
(Chlamyphorus truncatus): case study of a cryptic and little known species in
captivity". Zoo Biology. 30 (2): 225�231. doi:10.1002/zoo.20334. ISSN 1098-2361.
PMID 20648566.
"For Most Of Human History, Being An Omnivore Was No Dilemma". NPR.org. Retrieved
3 April 2016.
"omnivore: definition of omnivore in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)".
www.oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
Collocott, T. C., ed. (1974). Chambers Dictionary of science and technology.
Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers. ISBN 978-0-550-13202-4.
"Omnivore - Biology-Online Dictionary". www.biology-online.org. Retrieved 2 April
2016.
"omnivore - definition of omnivore in English from the Oxford dictionary".
www.oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
"Definition of OMNIVORE". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
"omnivore Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary".
dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
Clarys, Peter; Deliens, Tom; Huybrechts, Inge; Deriemaeker, Peter; Vanaelst,
Barbara; De Keyzer, Willem; Hebbelinck, Marcel; Mullie, Patrick (24 March 2014).
"Comparison of Nutritional Quality of the Vegan, Vegetarian, Semi-Vegetarian,
Pesco-Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diet". Nutrients. 6 (3): 1318�1332.
doi:10.3390/nu6031318. ISSN 2072-6643. PMC 3967195. PMID 24667136.
Reece, Jane (10 November 2013). Campbell Biology (10th Edition). Boston: Pearson.
pp. Chapter 55. ISBN 978-0321775658.
"Animals: Carnivore, Herbivore or Omnivore?". science made simple. 27 February
2014. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
Ewer, R. F. (1973). The Carnivores. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-
297-99564-7.
"Why Dogs Eat Grass ~ Dr. Richard Orzeck". www.worldsvet.com. Retrieved 17 April
2016.
"White-tailed deer shown to raid nests, eat eggs and baby birds, USGS reports".
NOLA.com. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
Hutson, Jarod M.; Burke, Chrissina C.; Haynes, Gary (1 December 2013).
"Osteophagia and bone modifications by giraffe and other large ungulates". Journal
of Archaeological Science. 40 (12): 4139�4149. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.06.004.
petMD. "Why do cats eat grass?". petMD. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
Platt, S. G.; Elsey, R. M.; Liu, H.; Rainwater, T. R.; Nifong, J. C.; Rosenblatt,
A. E.; Heithaus, M. R.; Mazzotti, F. J. (2013). "Frugivory and seed dispersal by
crocodilians: an overlooked form of saurochory?". Journal of Zoology. 291 (2):
87�99. doi:10.1111/jzo.12052. ISSN 1469-7998.
"Omnivore". www.eoearth.org. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
Maclean, Gordon Lindsay (1993). Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. Publisher: New
Holland. ISBN 978-0620175838.
Skaife, S. H. (1953). African Insect Life. Pub. Longmans, Green & Co., London.
"Anopheles Male Vs. Female". animals.mom.me. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
Singer, Michael S.; Bernays, Elizabeth A. (2003). "Understanding Omnivory Needs: A
Behavioral Perspective". Ecology. 84 (10): 2532�2537. doi:10.1890/02-0397.
"Omnivores' ancestors primarily ate plants, or animals, but not both". 17 April
2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
Brent Huffman. "Family Suidae (Pigs)". UltimateUngulate.com. Retrieved 29 December
2007.
"Tree Squirrels". The Humane Society of the United States. Archived from the
original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
"Eastern Chipmunk". Wonder Club. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
"Florida Mouse". United States Fauna. Archived from the original on 29 August
2007. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
"Brown Rat". Science Daily. Archived from the original on 31 December 2008.
Retrieved 1 January 2009.
Robert E. C. Wildman; Denis M. Medeiros (2000). Advanced Human Nutrition. CRC
Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0849385667. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
Robert Mari Womack (2010). The Anthropology of Health and Healing. Rowman &
Littlefield. p. 243. ISBN 978-0759110441. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
"Food and Diet". bearsmart.com. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
"About Wolves". Wolf Park. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015.
Retrieved 26 August 2015.
Halle, S. & Stenseth, N. (2000). Activity patterns in small mammals: an ecological
approach. Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany; New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 131.
Annex: Towards a Forestry Commission England Grey Squirrel Policy (PDF), UK:
Forestry Commission, 22 January 2006, retrieved 15 May 2012
Moller, H. (1983). "Food and foraging behaviour of red (Scirus vulgaris) and grey
(Scirus carolinensis) squirrels". Mammal Review 13: 81-98.
Seattle Audubon Society. "Family Corvidae (Crows/Ravens)". BirdWeb.org. Retrieved
1 January 2011.
Capinera, John (2010). Insects and Wildlife. Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-
1-4443-3300-8.
Ewing, Jack (2005). Monkeys Are Made of Chocolate. Publisher: Pixyjack Press. ISBN
978-0-9658098-1-8.
vte
Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Trophic components
vte
Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Other components
vte
Feeding behaviours
vte
Ethology
Categories: Animals by eating behaviorsEthology
Navigation menu
Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadEditView
historySearch
Search Wikipedia
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
???????
Espa�ol
??????
Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Melayu
???????
????
Winaray
??
57 more
Edit links
This page was last edited on 24 April 2019, at 02:53 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. Wikipedia� is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaDevelopersCookie
statementMobile viewWikimedia Foundation Powered by MediaWiki

You might also like