Carnivore

A carnivore is an animal or plant that gets its nutrition and energy by eating other animals. The word comes from Latin, where caro means meat or flesh and vorare means "to devour." Carnivores obtain their food mainly from muscles, fats, and other soft tissues of other creatures. They can get this food in two ways: by hunting and catching their prey, known as predation, or by finding and eating animals that have already died, known as scavenging. Many animals we think of as fierce hunters, like lions and eagles, are classic examples of carnivores.

Nomenclature

The word carnivore means an animal that eats meat. Many animals, like cats and dogs, belong to a group called Carnivora. This name can be confusing because not all animals in this group only eat meat. For example, bears sometimes eat plants, and the giant panda mostly eats bamboo.

Some animals need to eat meat to stay healthy, like certain cats. Others, such as many dogs, can eat both meat and plants. There are even plants that trap and eat tiny animals, called carnivorous plants.

Obligate carnivores

Obligate or "true" carnivores are animals that need to eat meat to get important nutrients that are only found in animal flesh. Even though they might eat a little bit of plant material, their bodies cannot properly digest it. For example, the axolotl, a type of amphibian, usually eats worms and larvae but can also eat algae when needed.

All wild cats, including domestic cats, are obligate carnivores. They need to eat mainly animal flesh and organs because their bodies require a lot of protein and cannot make certain important nutrients like retinol, arginine, taurine, and arachidonic acid. In nature, they must eat meat to get these nutrients.

Characteristics of carnivores

Carnivores, or meat-eaters, often have special traits that help them hunt or find food. Many have strong muscles, sharp teeth, and claws to catch and eat other animals. Some carnivores, however, don’t hunt—they find already-dead animals to eat instead.

Many hunting animals, like most mammals, have eyes that face forward, which helps them judge distances better. Some carnivores, such as snakes, spiders, scorpions, and certain wasps, use a powerful venom to make their prey unable to move.

Prehistory of carnivory

Main articles: Predation § Evolutionary history, and Evolutionary history of life

Eating other living things for food, called predation, started long before the animals we usually think of as meat-eaters. It began with tiny, single-celled organisms that swallowed and broke down other cells. Over time, these tiny organisms evolved into more complex, multi-celled life forms with special cells for eating others.

Early predators were tiny living things that swallowed smaller cells. The first predators might have lived between 1 and over 2.7 billion years ago. As life became more complex, so did predators. Some scientists think that a big change in life happened because new predators with hard shells and strong jaws started eating other creatures.