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THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF VERTEBRATES

MAMMALS: Camel

Bactrian camel (photo by Dr Michael Stoskopf)    < go to CD



Figure 6.7.  Relationship between cell wall digestibility and mean retention time (MRT) of fiber by foregut and colon fermenters on a grass hay diet. Red circles represent foregut fermenting ruminants and camels; a) barasigha, b) eland, c) nilgae, d) wapiti, e) water buck, f) gaur, g) giraffe, h) gemsbok, i) African buffalo, j) American bison, k) dromedary camel, and l) bactrian camel. Blue circles represent colon fermenting a) Grevy’s zebra, b) mountain zebra, c) plains zebra, d) Asian tapir, e) American tapir, f) Asian wild ass, g) African elephant, h) Asian elephant, i) black rhino, j) Indian rhino, and k) white rhino. R2 = 0.66 for the ruminants and camels and 0.26 for colon fermenters. Yellow triangles represent; (1)  red kangaroos on an alfalfa diet, river hippos on an (2) alfalfa hay or (3) grass diet, and (4) sloths on a diet of Ceropia palmata foliage. Data for ruminants, camels, hippos, and colon fermenters are from Foose (1982). Data on red kangaroos are from Hume (1999) and data on the three-toed sloth are from Foley et al. (1995) and Foley (personal communication.)  (CD Figure 7.7)


Table 8.5.  Short-chain fatty acids in the foregut of herbivorous birds and mammals. (CD Table 9.5)

Dashes indicate absence of information. Contributions of SCFA to maintenance energy were estimated from the rate of SCFA production by in vitro isotope dilution or measurements of digesta flow. Total maintenance energy was either calculated as twice  the BMR or assumed to be equivalent to ad libitum digestible energy intake in captive, nonreproducing, adult animals. (From Stevens and Hume 1995)