刘文勇ibt黄金阅读123版本：东非草食动物的饮食.docx

智课网TOEFL备考资料刘文勇ibt黄金阅读123版本：东非草食动物的饮食 摘要： 最新版刘文勇新托福黄金阅读12.3版本高清PDF格式支持免费下载，一共71篇，包括刘文勇黄金阅读原29篇，下面是刘文勇ibt黄金阅读12.3版本：东非草食动物的饮食 ，希望对大家备考托福阅读考试有所帮助。 刘文勇ibt黄金阅读12.3版本：FEEDING HABITS OF EAST AFRICAN HERBIVORES 东非草食动物的饮食 Buffalo, zebras, wildebeests, topi, and Thomson’s gazelles live in huge groups that together make up some 90 percent of the total weight of mammals living on the Serengeti Plain of East Africa. They are all herbivores (plant-eating animals), and they all appear to be living on the same diet of grasses, herbs, and small bushes. This appearance, however, is illusory. When biologist Richard Bell and his colleagues analyzed the stomach contents of four of the five species (they did not study buffalo), they found that each species was living on a different part of the vegetation. The different vegetational parts differ in their food qualities: lower down, there are succulent, nutritious leaves; higher up are the harder stems. There are also sparsely distributed, highly nutritious fruits, and Bell found that only the Thomson’s gazelles eat much of these. The other three species differ in the proportion of lower leaves and higher stems that they eat: zebras eat the most stem matter, wildebeests eat the most leaves, and topi are intermediate. How are we to understand their different feeding preferences? The answer lies in two associated differences among the species, in their digestive systems and body sizes. According to their digestive systems, these herbivores can be divided into two categories: the nonruminants (such as the zebra, which has a digestive system like a horse) and the ruminants (such as the wildebeest, topi, and gazelle, which are like the cow). Nonruminants cannot extract much energy from the hard parts of a plant; however, this is more than made up for by the fast speed at which food passes through their guts. Thus, when there is only a short supply of poor-quality food, the wildebeest, topi, and gazelle enjoy an advantage. They are