obligate carnivore
Requires flesh exclusively
An obligate carnivore is an animal that must eat meat to survive—its biology cannot extract sufficient nutrients from plants.
Cats are the classic example; they require nutrients like taurine found only in animal tissue.
The term distinguishes these species from facultative carnivores, which prefer meat but can survive on other foods when necessary.
- predatorOrganism that consumes others
- meat-eaterOne who consumes flesh
- raw meatAnimal tissue, unheated
- felineOf or like cats
- big catLarge wild feline
cat · cat food · hunter · prey · food chain · raw · kill · fangs · claws · stalk · pounce · protein · taurine · wild · wild animal · lion · tiger · house cat
- carnivoresmeat-eating, apex predator, wolf, tiger, hypercarnivore
- meat eatingmeat, beef, pork, poultry, hypercarnivore
obligate, obligation, obligatory, oblige, obliged, obliging, obligingly, carnivore, carnivorous