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 get their food mostly from muscles, fats, and other soft parts 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, called 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 must eat meat to get important nutrients found only in animal flesh. Even though they might try to eat some plants, their bodies cannot properly digest them. 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 need 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 find food. Many have strong muscles, sharp teeth, and claws to catch and eat other animals. Some carnivores 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 see better. Some carnivores, such as snakes, spiders, scorpions, and certain wasps, use a powerful venom to stop their prey from moving.

Prehistory of carnivory

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

Eating other living things for food, called predation, started long ago. It began with tiny, single-celled organisms that swallowed and broke down other cells. Over time, these tiny organisms changed into more complex 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.