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On Tue, 6 Feb 1996, Richard Pyle wrote:

> No, no. no - you're getting it all screwed up.  Carnivores have very 
> short guts, herbivores have very long guts.  It takes more processing 
> time to extract the "nutriments" from plant life than from meat.  Chewing 
> doesn't really matter that much.  Cows chew much more than we do (they 
> even cough up curd and chew it some more), but they still need a long 
> gut. I don't know much beyond basic physiology here - I'm certainly no 
> expert.  I just know we are not especially well-designed to be strict 
> herbivores (sorry, william...)

Actually chows burp up cud and rechew it.  It's not so much a question of 
time as the fact that cows and other ruminants have a large chamber 
called the rumen which contains bacteria that break down plant products 
into digestible components through fermentation.  That's also why they 
burp and fart a lot :). Without these bacteria ruminants would be unable 
to digest hay either. 
                         Bob Favorite RVT          
UC Davis VMTH              UC Davis SCUBA          The Octopus' Garden
VMD 490 Instructor          safety diver               safety diver

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