HOW ANIMALS EAT
A Red Deer Browses on Tall Ferns. Photo: Kevin Law
Some Plant Eaters Graze, Others Browse—And Some Do Both. What’s The Difference?
Aanimals with hooves, such as deer, antelope, sheep, goats, horses, and cattle have different strategies for feeding themselves. Some, such as horses and cattle, are grazers, which means they eat grass. In fact, the word “graze” is derived from the word “grass.”
Other animals, including most members of the deer family, are browsers. This means that they eat a variety of plant material including leaves, tree bark, and the tips of branches. When people see deer eating shrubs in their backyards, those deer are browsing on the shrubs.
Grazing works well for plant-eaters that live and feed in open areas where grass is plentiful. But grass is scarce in forests and swamps, and that’s where browsers have an advantage. However, most browsing animals will do some grazing when they are in a meadow, and many grazers will sample vegetation other than grass when they are moving through a woodland. Nonetheless, grazers and browsers usually have different types of teeth to help them bite and chew the foods they eat most often.
Mammals that are not strict vegetarians can be divided among hunters, foragers, and scavengers. Hunters such as tigers and wolves are carnivores—meat-eaters—that primarily kill other animals for food. Scavengers feed on other animals that have already died. And foragers wander around eating whatever edible plant and animal material they can find. For instance, raccoons and skunks forage for insects, smaller mammals, fruits, and roots. Mice forage for bugs and seeds, and monkeys are treetop foragers who search for fruits, insects, and birds’ eggs.
But as with grazers and foragers, the lines dividing hunting animals, scavenging animals, and foraging animals are often crossed. Hunters sometimes scavenge, scavengers have been known to hunt, and foragers will do anything that gets them a meal!
Extra for kids: To learn more about how browsing animals fit into their food webs, visit our sister website, What Eats?, to see what eats a deer? and what eats a moose? For the same information on grazers, see what eats a buffalo?, what eats a cow?, and what eats a horse?
