1st reported by Bonners Ferry Herald. A deer munches on the tips of young trees, ripping the leafless twigs from the plants. Surviving the winter on twigs isn’t very nutritious but the stomachs of deer are equipped to squeeze all the nutrients they can out of the tough twigs. All ruminants (the deer family, antelopes, sheep, goats, cattle and giraffes) sustain themselves on leaves, twigs, grass and other plant matter since they are herbivores.
To extract the most from plant matter, ruminants have a four-chambered stomach–not four stomachs as some people say.
The four-chambered stomach allows for ruminants to process low-nutrient food in large quantities. The first chamber (rumen) of a deer stomach can hold eight to nine quarts of plant matter. Within one to two hours a deer can fill its rumen unless food is scarce.
One benefit of the four-chambered stomach is that ruminants don’t have to thoroughly chew the first time like humans chew food. Instead, ruminants chew their food enough to swallow it. Then the food is stored in the rumen.
This allows ruminants to eat as much as possible in the shortest amount of time and minimizes the time they are less alert to predators. When a deer eats, the noise of eating vegetation decreases the chance of it hearing a predator.
After the rumen is full, ruminants seek a location where they can be alert and chew their food again. Have you heard of cows chewing their cud? Deer, elk and moose do the same thing–the process is called rumination.
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