Ruminants vs Non-Ruminants; What are the Ecological Consequences¿

We have ruminants, like this wonderful herd of cattle here. So tell me about those, Leo. Well, ruminants, they're different than non-ruminants in the sense that they have multiple stomachs. First they feed and they store it in the first stomach. There is no interchange with the blood in this first stomach. Then it is regurgitated, then they chew again, but they chew on a mix of all kinds of plants they've been eating. and then some neutralizing of plant chemicals takes place. And then when they swallow it again, it goes off to the second stomach and there the processing towards the blood and stuff continues, starts actually. That makes them much less vulnerable to any plant poison there is. So that's an advantage of these ruminants. So we were looking at giant hogweed earlier that had been grazed. That's a famously toxic plant. Yeah, but all ruminants love it. So all deer, sheep, goats, cattle, bison, and the bison especially, they break through the bracken in order to get to one hogweed plant. And it can be 20 or 30 meters. Once they smell it or see it, they must go there. Because it's so attractive. Yes, it's so attractive. So remind me, which are the non-ruminants? Well, the non-ruminants, it's all kinds of horse-like animals. So donkeys, half-ass horses, of course. But also elephants, us, we are non-ruminants. Wild boar and bears, for instance, are also non-ruminants. And so it seems a really critical distinction. And really, whether you have ruminants or non-ruminants present, really seems to make a difference and I guess very often you want a mix of the two of course and that's what we have here so cattle there and horses lovely flock of horses yeah over here thank you flock is the term for horses isn't it