Comparison of Digestive Systems of AnimalsSophie Gaft (11) BiologyQuestion 1: ASelect one animal from the list of carnivorous animals and one from the list of herbivorous animals. Compare the structural differences between the two digestive systems. Comparison between the digestive system of a rabbit and that of a cat. Rabbit (Lepus curpaeums): Unlike a cat, a rabbit eats a wide variety of plant material. They can process and extract nutrients from many plants that would otherwise be indigestible by other herbivores and omnivores. A rabbit's digestive process, like that of a cat, begins in the mouth. The rabbit's front teeth, the incisors, cut pieces of plant matter. Food is passed to the back teeth, the molars, where mechanical digestion is incorporated and the matter is chewed into smaller particles and then digested. The rabbit has a large stomach for its body size which allows for the rapid consumption of large quantities of plant material. In addition to the above, the rabbit has a large caecum, located where the small intestine and large intestine merge. A rabbit's gastrointestinal tract directs food into the cecum as needed for further breakdown. Any already digested material does not go to the cecum, but moves directly into the large intestine as waste. The fiber that makes up much of a rabbit's diet is broken down in the caecum by microorganisms. Here the matter becomes a digestible nutrient. This matter must then be moved once again through the digestive system. The rabbit's large intestine is very long and thin. Cecotropes, small, round, moist pellets, are produced by the rabbit's caecum. The rabbit eats them as soon as they emerge. This is also an action evident in a multitude of other mammals: the feces are in the center of the paper... IN A CARNIVORA DIET: Cat (Felis catus): A cat has a simple stomach, small caecum and short intestine. In a carnivorous animal, the stomach secretes digestive enzymes that contain very strong hydrochloric acid. Unlike herbivores, much of the digestion of food occurs in the stomach of carnivores, rather than the caecum, which is sometimes not even found in carnivores. The food is then moved into the small intestine, which is the main site of digestion through enzymes. Food continues to travel along the small intestine through peristalsis. To facilitate the digestion of lipids (or fats), bile is secreted by the liver. It emulsifies (fuses together) lipids and increases the efficiency of enzymes and, at the same time, also increases the surface area. The waste is excreted through the rectum and anal sphincters after passing through the long intestine, which mainly reabsorbs water.