Just like you thought, carnivores cannot survive without meat! A carnivore, by definition is a plant, animal or even insect that feeds on the flesh of animals. Some carnivores eat meat only strictly, but there are some that supplement their diet with vegetation occasionally. A good example would be a bear which feeds on both plants and meat, which makes it omnivorous. Sadly, animal nutrition is a science that is wholly misunderstood. In this enlightening article we will explore the world of carnivores, also commonly known as meat eaters. We will look at the types or categories of carnivores and their characteristics. Afterwards, we will put our focus on the very misunderstood northern rocky mountain wolf, just to have an insight into some of the myths around this animal.
- Types of Carnivores
- Characteristics of carnivores
- The Gray Wolf demystified
Types of Carnivores
We have three types of carnivores based on their level of meat consumption. Let us delve a little bit deeper into what constitutes each of the above type’s diet and what exactly makes them more or less of carnivores than the others.
Hyper-carnivores
These are carnivores that eat mostly meat. They are considered obligate carnivores given the fact that they cannot properly digest vegetation; their gut is simply not cut out that way. Their diet consists of 70% meat! Creatures in this category include the cat family i.e. lions, small cats and tigers. Other obligate carnivores are snakes, most amphibians and lizards. One animal stands out; the northern rocky mountain wolf. Commonly known as the gray wolf, this beautiful mammal’s diet consists of large hoofed mammals i.e. ungulates such as caribou, moose, deer and elk. They also feed on small animals like beaver and rabbits. At times, they even feed on dead animals, thus they can be called scavengers.
Their physique is meant to help with their kind of lifestyle when it comes to matters diet. They have heavy skulls and accompanying strong facial musculature that helps in holding the prey, slicing through flesh and grinding bones with so much ease you’d be left dumbfounded. Their dental formula is specific to the kind of food they eat. Most of them have a special set of teeth called carnassial teeth. The first lower molar and fourth upper molar. These teeth close together in a shearing motion, more like scissors, which is what allows them to slice through flesh. Interestingly, there are some hyper-carnivores that do not have carnassial teeth; the crabeater seal and the carnivorous baleen whale. They have structures that strain krill (a type of zooplankton) from the water. Click this link for more information.
Meso-carnivores
These are animals that depend on meat for only fifty percent of their diet. Alongside meat, their diet consists of fungi, fruits and vegetables. Generally, meso-carnivores are relatively smaller in size, and they tend to live close to humans. Examples of animals in this category are foxes, raccoons and coyotes.
Hypo-carnivores
These carnivores consume the least amount of meat in their diet; 30% or even less. Most of these animals are omnivores; they eat berries, nuts, fish, roots as well as meat.
Characteristics of Carnivores
Carnivores may come in different shapes and sized, but there are a few similarities they share.
- Most of them have relatively large brains with accompanying intelligence levels.
- Their digestive systems are less complicated than that of herbivores. For instance, most herbivorous animals have multiple stomachs, while carnivores only have one stomach.
- They all eat meat on some level
There is something distinguishing among carnivores; frequency of their feeding. Carnivores that are warm blooded tend to burn lots of calories. As such, they hunt a lot and eat frequently to sustain the energy levels their bodies need. Cold-blooded ones on the contrary, use very few calories and can stay for days or even months in between meals.
The Gray Wolf demystified
One of the most misunderstood animals on the planet is the northern rocky mountain wolf, also known as the gray wolf. A long time ago, this amazing creature was branded the big bad wolf. Ever since this has had many fatal consequences for the wolf. Many myths exist around this wolf and you should not take them as the gospel truth.
However, let us have a look at some but a few of them:
- Gray wolves pose a serious danger to humans
This sounds very true, but it is quite a misleading one. As a matter of fact, it is more likely that you will be struck by lightning than get attacked by a gray wolf. These animals are quite shy of humans and are wary of them. Over the last century there has only been two fatal gray wolf attacks in North America.
- Gray wolves are a threat to livestock
Ranchers have nothing to worry about. Research has shown that 99.9% of cattle deaths result from other causes and not from gray wolf attacks.
- Gray wolves kill for sport
Nothing could be further from the truth. Wild carnivores kill to survive, and this is hardly the case for gray wolves. It is humans who kill other species for fun, although sometimes it is for self-defense.
- Gray wolves are nothing close to humans
Surprisingly, gray wolves and humans share many similarities. Just like the human family, the northern rocky mountain wolf is a species that lives as a pack. Just as we rely on our families for support, these animals also rely on their packs. They too feel a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from joy to despair, happiness to sadness. Death of one member can leave the entire pack morning the loss ever so deeply.
- Killing gray wolves has little to no effect on our ecosystem
Ever since the last gray wolf was killed in 1944 in the Rocky Mountain National Park, so much has evidently changed in Colorado. The then wetlands are now dry as bone. For thousands of years, Colorado’s ecosystem flourished when these animals roamed freely. Now, thanks to human ignorance, our ecosystem is paying the price.
Concluding Thoughts
Many are the times when human intervention has done more harm than good. Wolves pose little to no danger on humans; all they want is to exist in nature as we are, yet they are the most hunted predators almost globally. It is up to us to see how vastly misunderstood most of these animals are and change our way of doing things.
