Eli5: How are elephants able to consume enough calories when all they eat is leaves and vegetables and those have very few calories?

Question

Eli5: How are elephants able to consume enough calories when all they eat is leaves and vegetables and those have very few calories?

In: 60

Answer 1

Adult elephants eat 100 to 200 lbs of plant material per day and have a symbiotic relationship with gut bacteria that allows them to digest cellulose (and therefore extract more calories and proteins than humans can) in a process called hindgut fermentation.