Which animal is a non-ruminant grazing mammal?

Which animal is a non-ruminant grazing mammal?

• A. Cow
• B. Sheep
• C. Horse
• D. Goat

Answer: (C)

Non-ruminant grazing mammals digest fibrous plant material mainly in the hindgut rather than in a four-chambered stomach. The horse fits this pattern: it has a simple stomach and a large cecum and colon where microbial fermentation occurs after the small intestine, and it grazes on grasses without regurgitating cud. In contrast, cows, sheep, and goats are ruminants, possessing a four-chambered stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum) and they chew cud. So the animal that is a non-ruminant grazing mammal is the horse.

Non-ruminant grazing mammals digest fibrous plant material mainly in the hindgut rather than in a four-chambered stomach. The horse fits this pattern: it has a simple stomach and a large cecum and colon where microbial fermentation occurs after the small intestine, and it grazes on grasses without regurgitating cud. In contrast, cows, sheep, and goats are ruminants, possessing a four-chambered stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum) and they chew cud. So the animal that is a non-ruminant grazing mammal is the horse.