A graminivore is a

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...

animal that feeds primarily on grass, specifically "true" grasses, plants of the family Poaceae (also known as Graminae). Graminivory is a form of

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

. These herbivorous animals have digestive systems that are adapted to digest large amounts of

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell w ...

, which is abundant in fibrous plant matter and more difficult to break down for many other animals. As such, they have specialized

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

s to aid in digestion and in some cases symbiotic bacteria that live in their digestive track and "assist" with the digestive process through fermentation as the matter travels through the intestines.

Horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

geese A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...

guinea pigs The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the a ...

hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...

es, capybara and giant pandas are examples of

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

graminivores. Some carnivorous vertebrates, such as

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

s and

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s, are known to eat grass occasionally. Grass consumption in dogs can be a way to rid their intestinal tract of parasites that may be threatening to the carnivore's health. Various

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s also have graminivorous diets. Many grasshoppers, such as individuals from the family Acrididae, have diets consisting primarily of plants from the family Poaceae. Although humans are not graminivores, we do get much of our nutrition from a type of grass called cereal, and especially from the fruit of that grass which is called grain. Graminivores generally exhibit a preference on which species of grass they choose to consume. For example, according to a study done on North American bison feeding on shortgrass plains in north-eastern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, the cattle consumed a total of thirty-six different species of plant. Of that thirty-six, five grass species were favoured and consumed the most pervasively. The average consumption of these five species comprised about 80% of their diet. A few of these species include ''

Aristida longiseta ''Aristida'' is a very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. ''Aristida'' is distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species found worldwide, often in arid warm ...

'', ''

Muhlenbergia ''Muhlenbergia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. The genus is named in honor of the German-American amateur botanist Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815). Many of the species are known by the common name muhly. The greatest ...

'' species, and '' Bouteloua gracilis''. File:Kangur.rudy.drs.jpg,

Red kangaroo The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...

eating grass File:Horses.london.750pix.jpg,

s also eat grass Image:Capybara Hattiesburg Zoo (70909b-42) 2560x1600.jpg, A capybara grazing at

Hattiesburg Zoo The Hattiesburg Zoo (sometimes also called the Kamper Park Zoo) is a small zoo located within Kamper Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. The zoo is operated by the Hattiesburg Convention Commission. As of 2019, the Commission's ex ...

References

Ethology Herbivory {{ecology-stub