Comparison of the digestive system of animalsSophie Gaft (11) BiologyQuestion 1: Choose an animal from the list of carnivorous animals and one from the list of herbivorous animals. Compare the structural differences between the two digestive systems.Comparison of the digestive system of a rabbit and a cat.Rabbit (Lepus curpaeums): Unlike a cat, a rabbit eats a wide variety of plant matter. They can process and extract nutrients from many plants that would otherwise be indigestible by other herbivores and omnivores. A rabbit's digestive process, like that of a cat, begins in the mouth. The rabbit's front teeth, the incisors, cut pieces of plant matter. Food is passed to the back teeth, the molars, where mechanical digestion is incorporated and the material is chewed into smaller particles and then digested. The rabbit has a large stomach for its size, allowing it to eat large quantities of plant matter quickly. In addition to the above, the rabbit has a large cecum, located where the small and large intestines merge. A rabbit's gastrointestinal tract directs food to the cecum as necessary for further breakdown. Already digested materials do not go into the cecum, but directly into the large intestine as waste. The fiber that makes up a large part of a rabbit's diet is broken down in the caecum by microorganisms. Here the material becomes a digestible nutrient. This material must then be moved back through the digestive system. The rabbit's large intestine is very long and thin. Cecotropes, small round, moist pellets, are produced by the rabbit's caecum. The rabbit eats them as soon as they come out. This is also an action evident in a multitude of other mammals - the feces are all...... middle of paper ......UNDER A CARNIVORE DIET:Cat (Felis catus):A cat has a stomach simple, small cecum and short intestine. In a carnivorous animal, the stomach secretes digestive enzymes which harbor a very strong hydrochloric acid. Unlike herbivores, much of the digestion of food occurs in the stomach of carnivores, rather than in the cecum, which is sometimes not even found in carnivores. The food is then moved to the small intestine, which is the primary site for enzyme digestion. Food continues to travel along the small intestine by peristalsis. To facilitate the digestion of lipids or fats, bile is secreted by the liver. It emulsifies – mixes – lipids and increases the efficiency of enzymes, while also increasing surface area. The remains are excreted via the rectum and anal sphincters after passing through the long intestine, which mainly reabsorbs water..