the.com/folivore
An animal that chose the diet with the least calories and the most chewing.
means An animal that feeds mainly on leaves, a diet so fibrous and nutrient-poor that it usually demands a slow gut, a big gut, or both.
from Built from Latin folium, 'leaf' (the same root that gives us foliage), fused with -vorus, 'devouring,' from vorare, 'to swallow whole.' It's a 19th/20th-century scientific coinage, assembled the same way as carnivore and herbivore — Latin parts bolted together by naturalists who needed a tidy label for leaf-eaters specifically, not just plant-eaters in general.
- energy budget
- leaves are so low-cal, sloths barely move
- gut hack
- many ferment leaves in oversized guts like cows
- detox skill
- must neutralize plant toxins leaves evolved as defense
- famous folivore
- koalas eat eucalyptus other animals find poisonous