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THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF VERTEBRATES

MAMMALS: Wombat

Hairy-nosed wombat (photo by Dr Kerri Slifka)    < go to CD



Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) digestive tract (Stevens & Hume 1995)


Table 6.4.  Mean digesta retention time for herbivorous colon fermenters  (CD Table 7.4)

Although digesta retention times are affected by differences in the diet, and in the body temperatures of the reptiles, marsupial, and eutherian mammals, colon fermenters retain particulate digesta as long or longer than fluid digesta. The effects of colonic retention of particles can be muted in animals with a relatively large cecum such as the chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla.  (modified from Stevens and Hume 1995)


Table 8.7a.  (CD Table 9.7a)

* Absorption from cecum (or ceca) alone.
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, and adult animals. (From Stevens and Hume 1995.)