eli5: Why are herbivorous animals usually fatter/bigger than carnivorous animals?
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It’s mostly a Perception thing on your part. Animals will generally adapt to fill a niche. The largest animal ever the blue whale is a carnivore. But it doesn’t need to move too fast to catch its prey. The lion has to catch its food being too big makes that difficult. As to why some herbivores are larger depends what they eat. A lot of larger herbivores like Buffalo are called ruminants they have complex stomachs to digest plant matter in an efficient way. But they have to eat a lot of material and spend large portions of their day just grazing. On the small side many rodents or birds ( generally small animals) are herbivorous but target high calorie easy to digest foods like nuts, fruits, or flowers.
It’s mostly a Perception thing on your part. Animals will generally adapt to fill a niche. The largest animal ever the blue whale is a carnivore. But it doesn’t need to move too fast to catch its prey. The lion has to catch its food being too big makes that difficult. As to why some herbivores are larger depends what they eat. A lot of larger herbivores like Buffalo are called ruminants they have complex stomachs to digest plant matter in an efficient way. But they have to eat a lot of material and spend large portions of their day just grazing. On the small side many rodents or birds ( generally small animals) are herbivorous but target high calorie easy to digest foods like nuts, fruits, or flowers.
Predators spend a lot of energy catching stuff to eat. Some herbivores, usually non-domesticated animals, can be thinner/smaller. Like antelope.
Predators spend a lot of energy catching stuff to eat. Some herbivores, usually non-domesticated animals, can be thinner/smaller. Like antelope.
Predators spend a lot of energy catching stuff to eat. Some herbivores, usually non-domesticated animals, can be thinner/smaller. Like antelope.
Work.
If a Lion wants to eat it has to sprint and wrestle.
If a gazelle wants to eat, it has to stand around and munch grass.
Now, that work builds muscle, it shapes the animal’s physiology just like comparing a Gym bro to an accountant.
Also then consider what that entails, if the Lion wants to be fast enough to catch a gazelle, and strong enough to take it down, it can’t carry additional fat that would slow it down. If he gets fat, he starts to starve, he starts to slim down.
If a gazelle wants to survive, it needs to be faster than a Lion OR develop strategies like being in a herd, at which point it isn’t outrunning the fastest Lion, but the slowest gazelle. If the entire herd spends all day grazing, the majority can gain excess weight while still not being the slowest in the group.
For a creature like an elephant, it’s weight and bulk is an advantage boosting survivability, so chunky elephants and lean tigers makes sense.
Then look at a bear, as an omnivore it bulks up and gets fat but it’s hunting salmon, eating berries, scavenging stuff, the bear isn’t having to chase down a cow everytime it needs to eat. The bear can be fat and still score meals, so it doesn’t need to be lean and sleak.
Work.
If a Lion wants to eat it has to sprint and wrestle.
If a gazelle wants to eat, it has to stand around and munch grass.
Now, that work builds muscle, it shapes the animal’s physiology just like comparing a Gym bro to an accountant.
Also then consider what that entails, if the Lion wants to be fast enough to catch a gazelle, and strong enough to take it down, it can’t carry additional fat that would slow it down. If he gets fat, he starts to starve, he starts to slim down.
If a gazelle wants to survive, it needs to be faster than a Lion OR develop strategies like being in a herd, at which point it isn’t outrunning the fastest Lion, but the slowest gazelle. If the entire herd spends all day grazing, the majority can gain excess weight while still not being the slowest in the group.
For a creature like an elephant, it’s weight and bulk is an advantage boosting survivability, so chunky elephants and lean tigers makes sense.
Then look at a bear, as an omnivore it bulks up and gets fat but it’s hunting salmon, eating berries, scavenging stuff, the bear isn’t having to chase down a cow everytime it needs to eat. The bear can be fat and still score meals, so it doesn’t need to be lean and sleak.
Work.
If a Lion wants to eat it has to sprint and wrestle.
If a gazelle wants to eat, it has to stand around and munch grass.
Now, that work builds muscle, it shapes the animal’s physiology just like comparing a Gym bro to an accountant.
Also then consider what that entails, if the Lion wants to be fast enough to catch a gazelle, and strong enough to take it down, it can’t carry additional fat that would slow it down. If he gets fat, he starts to starve, he starts to slim down.
If a gazelle wants to survive, it needs to be faster than a Lion OR develop strategies like being in a herd, at which point it isn’t outrunning the fastest Lion, but the slowest gazelle. If the entire herd spends all day grazing, the majority can gain excess weight while still not being the slowest in the group.
For a creature like an elephant, it’s weight and bulk is an advantage boosting survivability, so chunky elephants and lean tigers makes sense.
Then look at a bear, as an omnivore it bulks up and gets fat but it’s hunting salmon, eating berries, scavenging stuff, the bear isn’t having to chase down a cow everytime it needs to eat. The bear can be fat and still score meals, so it doesn’t need to be lean and sleak.
I don’t know exactly the reason overall but something interesting to note that’s correlated is that Gorillas have pot bellies because of their gut biome. They’re bloated from all the microbial activity in their gut which they need in order to digest the plants they eat.
I don’t know exactly the reason overall but something interesting to note that’s correlated is that Gorillas have pot bellies because of their gut biome. They’re bloated from all the microbial activity in their gut which they need in order to digest the plants they eat.
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