Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. There are many types of feeding that animals exhibit, including:

• filter feeding - obtaining food suspended in the water column
• deposit feeding - obtaining food particles in soil
• fluid feeding - obtaining food by consuming other organisms fluids
• food-mass feeding - obtaining food by eating pieces of other organisms

Another classification refers to the food groups some animals specialize in, such as:

• Carnivore - meat
• Detritivore - decomposing material
• Folivore - leaves
• Frugivore - fruits
• Granivore - seeds
• Herbivore - plants
• Insectivore - insects
• Nectarivore - nectar
• Mucivore - plant juices
• Mycovore - fungi
• Omnivore - plants and meat
• Piscivore - fishes
• Sanguinivore - blood
• Saprovore - dead matter
• Etc.

There are also several food sources which have caused the development of specialized feeding behaviors, such as:

• Ophiophagy: feeding on snakes
• Hematophagy: feeding on blood
• Coprophagy: feeding on faeces
• Mucophagy: feeding on mucus
• Cannibalism: feeding on members of the same species
• Trophallaxis: regurgitation of food to another animal
• Etc.

In many instances, the specialization of organisms in a specific type of food source has been one of the major causes of evolution of form and function, such as:

• mouth parts and teeth, such as in whales, vampire bats, leeches, mosquitos, predatory animals such as felines and fishes, etc
• distinct forms of beaks in birds, such as in hawks, woodpeckers, pelicans, hummingbirds, parrots, kingfishers, etc.
• specialized claws and other appendages, for apprehending or killing (including fingers in primates
• changes in body colour for facilitating camouflage, disguise, setting up traps for preys, etc.
• changes in the digestive system, such as the system of stomaches of herbivores, commensalism and symbiosis

See also

• -vore
• -phagy

Ethology | Eating behaviors

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