Feeding

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Classification

By mode of ingestion

• filter feeding
  Filter feeder
  
  Filter feeders are animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure....
   - obtaining nutrients from particles suspended in water
• deposit feeding - obtaining nutrients from particles suspended in soil
• fluid feeding
  Fluid feeder
  
  Fluid feeders are organisms that feed on the fluid of other organisms. It can refer to:*Hematophagy, feeding on blood*Nectarivore, feeding on nectar...
   - obtaining nutrients by consuming other organisms' fluids
• bulk feeding - obtaining nutrients by eating part or all of an organism

By mode of digestion

• Extra-cellular digestion
  Extra-cellular digestion
  
  Extra-cellular digestion is a process where saprobionts feed by secreting enzymes through the cell membrane onto the food. The enzymes catalyse the food into molecules small enough for them to be phagocytosed....
   - excreting digesting enzymes and then reabsorbing the products
• Myzocytosis
  Myzocytosis
  
  Myzocytosis is a method of feeding found in some heterotrophic organisms. It is also called "cellular vampirism" as the predatory cell pierces the cell wall and/or cell membrane of the prey cell with a feeding tube, sucks out the cellular content and digests it....
   - one cell pierces another using a feeding tube, and sucks out cytoplasm
• Phagocytosis
  Phagocytosis
  
  File:Phagocytosis in three steps.pngPhagocytosis is the cell process of Phagocytes and Protists of engulfing solid particles by the cell membrane to form an internal phagosome, which is a food vacuole, or pteroid....
   - engulfing food matter into living cells, where it is digested

By food type

• Carnivore
  Carnivore
  
  A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' , is any animal with a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from animals living or dead .In a more general sense, an animal may be considered a carnivore if it prefers feeding on animal matter over plant matter....
   - the eating of animals
• Hematophagy
  Hematophagy
  
  Hematophagy is the habit of certain animals of feeding on blood . Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids that can be taken without enormous effort, hematophagy has evolution as a preferred form of feeding in many small animals such as worms and arthropods....
   - eating blood
• Insectivore
  Insectivore
  
  An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures.Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers and make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine environments....
   - eating insects
• Myrmecophagy
  Myrmecophagy
  
  Myrmecophagy is a feeding behavior defined by the consumption of termites and/or ants, particularly in those animal species whose diets are largely or exclusively composed of said insect types....
   - eating ants and/or termites
• Lepidophagy
  Lepidophagy
  
  Lepidophagy is a specialised feeding behaviour in fish that involves eating of Scale of other fish. Lepidophagy is widespread, having been independently evolved in at least five freshwater families and seven marine families....
   - eating fish scales
• Man-eater
  Man-eater
  
  A man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that adds humans to its diet. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet....
   - eating humans
• Molluscivore
  Molluscivore
  
  A molluscivore is a carnivore animal which eats mainly molluscs.Several species of pufferfish and loaches fit this category. As many molluscs are protected by a Animal shell, the feeding techniques applied amongst molluscivore fish are highly specialized and usually divided into two groups; "crushers" and "slurpers." Pufferfish tend to be...
   - eating molluscs
• Mucophagy
  Mucophagy
  
  Mucophagy is feeding on mucus of fishes or invertebrates. It may also refer to consumption of mucus or dried mucus in primates, which serves no dietary or nutritional function and is not common....
   - eating mucus
• Ophiophagy
  Ophiophagy
  
  Ophiophagy is a specialized form of feeding or alimentary behavior of animals which predation and eat snakes. There are ophiophagous mammals , birds , lizards , and even other snakes, such as the Central and South American mussuranas and the North American Common Kingsnake ....
   - eating snakes
• Piscivore
  Piscivore
  
  A piscivore is a carnivore animal which lives on eating fish.Some animals, like the sea lion, or alligator, are not completely piscivores, while others, like the Aquatic Genet, are strictly dependent on fish for food....
   - eating fish
• Spongivore
  Spongivore
  
  A spongivore is an organism that feeds primarily on animals of the Phylum Porifera, commonly called sea sponges....
   - eating sponges
• Herbivore
  Herbivore
  
  Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
   - the eating of plants
• Folivore
  Folivore
  
  In zoology, a folivore is a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves. Mature leaves contain a high proportion of hard-to-digest cellulose and relatively little energy....
   - eating leaves
• Frugivore
  Frugivore
  
  A frugivore is a type of herbivore that eats a substantial portion of fruit. A few frugivores species eat only fruit, but many also consume leaves and/or insects....
   - eating fruits
• Graminivore
  Graminivore
  
  In zoology, a graminivore is an herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass . The word is derived from Latin graminis, meaning "grass", and vorare, meaning "to eat." Graminivory is a form of grazing....
   - eating grasses
• Granivore - eating seeds
• Nectarivore
  Nectarivore
  
  In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which eats the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Most nectarivores are insects or birds, but there are also nectarivorous mammals, notably several species of bats in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, as well as the Australian Honey Possum , and Geckos in Mauritius....
   - eating nectar
• Palynivore
  Palynivore
  
  In zoology, a palynivore is an herbivorous animal which selectively eats the nutrient-rich pollen produced by angiosperms and gymnosperms. Most true palynivores are insects or mites....
   - eating pollen
• Xylophagy
  Xylophagy
  
  Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily of wood. The word derives from Greek language ????f???? "eating wood", from ????? "wood" + f??e?? "to eat" and it was an ancient Greek name for a kind of a worm....
   - eating wood
• Omnivore
  Omnivore
  
  Omnivores are species that eating both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively....
   - the eating of both plants and animals
• Fungivore
  Fungivore
  
  A fungivore is any animal that primarily or solely feeding upon living members of the fungus kingdom. Fungivory is a type of predation, and is an important part of the soil food web....
   - the eating of fungus
• Bacterivore
  Bacterivore
  
  Bacterivores are free-living, generally heterotrophic organisms, exclusively microscopic, which obtain energy and nutrients primarily or entirely from the consumption of bacteria....
   - the eating of bacteria

• Coprophagy - eating faeces
• Detritivore
  Detritivore
  
  Detritivores, also known as detritus feeders or saprophages, are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus . By doing so, they contribute to decomposition and the nutrient cycles....
   - eating decomposing material
• Geophagy
  Geophagy
  
  Geophagy is the practice of eating earthy or soil-like substances such as clay, and chalk, in order to obtain essential nutrients such as sulfur and phosphorus from the soil....
   - eating inorganic earth
• Scavenger
  Scavenger
  
  Scavenging, or necrophagy, is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrion that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species....
   - eating carrion

• Cannibalism
  Cannibalism (zoology)
  
  In zoology, cannibalism is the act of one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded for more than 1500 species ....
   - feeding on members of the same species
• Self-cannibalism
  Self-cannibalism
  
  Self-cannibalism is the practice of eating oneself, also called autocannibalism, or autosarcophagy. A similar term which is applied differently is autophagy, which specifically denotes the normal process of self-degradation by cell s....
   - feeding on parts of one's own body (see also autophagy
  Autophagy
  
  In cell biology, autophagy, or autophagocytosis, is a catabolic process involving the degradation of a cell's own components through the lysosome machinery....
  )
• Sexual cannibalism
  Sexual cannibalism
  
  Sexual cannibalism is a special case of Cannibalism in which a female organism kills and consumes a male of the same species before, during, or after copulation....
   - cannibalism after mating
• Kleptoparasitism
  Kleptoparasitism
  
  Kleptoparasitism or cleptoparasitism is a form of feeding where one animal takes prey from another that has caught, killed, or otherwise prepared the prey, including stored food ....
   - stealing food from another animal
• Trophallaxis
  Trophallaxis
  
  Trophallaxis is the transfer of food or other fluids among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth feeding. It is most highly developed in social insects such as ants, termites, wasps and bees....
   - eating food regurgitated by another animal
• Oophagy
  Oophagy
  
  Oophagy is the practice of embryos feeding on eggs produced by the ovary while still inside the mother's uterus.Oophagy is thought to occur in all sharks in the order Lamniformes and has been recorded in the bigeye thresher , the pelagic thresher , the shortfin mako and the porbeagle shark among others....
   - eating eggs
• Ovophagy
  Ovophagy
  
  Ovophagy is a rare though widely observed condition in the reproduction of certain animals, whereby fetuses will devour each other prior to birth....
   - eating embryos
• Paedophagy
  Paedophagy
  
  Paedophagy literally means the "consumption of children". It is a term used to describe the feeding behaviour of fish, or other animals, whose diet is partially, or primarily the Egg or larvae of other animals....
   - eating young animals
• Placentophagy
  Placentophagy
  
  Placentophagy is the act of mammals eating the placenta of their young after childbirth.The placenta contains high levels of prostaglandin which stimulates involution of the uterus, in effect cleaning the uterus out....
   - eating placenta

Evolutionary adaptations

• mouth
  Mouth
  
  The mouth, buccal cavity, or oral cavity is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and begins digestion by mechanically breaking up the solid food particles into smaller pieces and mixing them with saliva....
   parts and teeth
  Tooth
  
  Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense....
  , such as in whale
  Whale
  
  Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
  s, vampire bat
  Vampire bat
  
  Vampire bats are bats whose food source is blood, a dietary trait called hematophagy. There are three bat species that feed solely on blood: the Common vampire bat , the Hairy-legged Vampire Bat , and the White-winged Vampire Bat ....
  s, leech
  Leech
  
  Leeches are annelids comprising the subclass Hirudinea. There are fresh water, terrestrial, and marine leeches. Like the Oligochaeta, they share the presence of a clitellum....
  es, mosquito
  Mosquito
  
  Mosquitoes are common flying insects in the family Culicidae that are found around the world. There are about 3,500 species. They have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and six long legs....
  s, predatory animals such as feline
  Felidae
  
  Felidae is the family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the most strictly Carnivore of the sixteen mammal families in the order Carnivora....
  s and fish
  Fish
  
  A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
  es, etc
• distinct forms of beak
  Beak
  
  The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which, in addition to eating, is used for Personal grooming#In animals, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, Courtship#Courtship in the animal kingdom and feeding their young....
  s in birds, such as in hawk
  Hawk
  
  The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Europe and Asia, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genus Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis....
  s, woodpecker
  Woodpecker
  
  Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks....
  s, pelican
  Pelican
  
  A pelican is a large water bird with a distinctive pouch under the beak, belonging to the bird Family Pelecanidae.Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobys, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes....
  s, hummingbird
  Hummingbird
  
  Hummingbirds are birds in the family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15?200 times per second ....
  s, parrot
  Parrot
  
  File:Ara ararauna -eating -Wilhelma Zoo-8-2rc.jpgParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genus that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most warm and tropical regions....
  s, kingfisher
  Kingfisher
  
  Kingfishers are small bright colored birds of the three families Alcedinidae , Halcyonidae , and Cerylidae . There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher....
  s, etc.
• specialized claw
  Claw
  
  A claw is a curved, pointed appendage, found at the end of a toe or finger in most mammals, birds, and some reptiles. Somewhat similar fine hooked structures are found in arthropods such as beetles and spiders, at the end of the leg or Arthropod leg for gripping a surface as the creature walks....
  s and other appendages, for apprehending or killing (including fingers in primate
  Primate
  
  A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
  s)
• changes in body colour for facilitating camouflage
  Camouflage
  
  Camouflage is a method of cryptic or concealing coloration that allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain invisibility through deception....
  , disguise, setting up traps for preys, etc.
• changes in the digestive
  Digestion
  
  Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be Absorption, for instance, by a blood stream....
   system, such as the system of stomach
  Stomach
  
  In most mammals, the stomach is a hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication....
  s of herbivores, commensalism
  Commensalism
  
  In ecology, commensalism is a class of relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or benefited....
   and symbiosis
  Symbiosis
  
  The term symbiosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species. The term was first used in 1879 by the Germany mycology Heinrich Anton de Bary, who defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms"....
  

Storage behaviors

• Some animals exhibit hoarding and caching
  Cache (biology)
  
  Caches or food caches are stores of food made by many species of animals for future consumption. They are usually hidden from the sight of competing individuals of the same species as well as others....
   behaviors in which they store or hide food for later use.