hindgut fermentation
Posterior digestive breakdown
Hindgut fermentation is a digestive process in which microorganisms break down plant material in the cecum or colon rather than in a specialized forestomach.
Horses, rabbits, and elephants are hindgut fermenters—they digest cellulose after the small intestine, unlike ruminants like cows that ferment food before it reaches the stomach.
The process extracts nutrients from fibrous plant matter that would otherwise pass undigested.
- cecumLarge intestine's origin pouch
- large intestineLower digestive tract portion
- rumenFirst stomach of ruminants
- fiberPlant-based digestive aid
- cellulosePlant wall polysaccharide
plant material · microbes · gut · gut flora · colon · digestive tract · herbivore · horse · rabbit · elephant · chewing cud · digestion · bacteria · volatile fatty acids · fatty acids · methane · forage · grass
- rabbit digestioncecotrophy, cecum, hindgut
- insect anatomyabdomen, antennae, thorax, exoskeleton, head
- animal nutritiondigestibility, amino acids, protein content, nutrient density, protein sources
- digestion types
ferment, fermentation, fermented, fermenting, ferments, fermenter, fermentable, gutted, gutting