Why are the largest land animals herbivores?

Question

Considering that herbivores eat the least nutriticous food, why do the get so large?

Answer 1

In the beginning of time man didn't have machinery. God created large animals capable of eating large amounts of plants to keep the earth looking beautiful. The larger the animal gets, the more it can eat. Think of them as nature's landscapers. Besides, you wouldn't want the largest animal to be a carnivore, would you? lol

Answer 2

The largest animals got that big, because size is a way of defense against predators. They feed on plants because they evolved from herbivore animals, so the question could be: Why carnivores aren't the biggest animals on land? Because to have a size as elephant's or bachiloterium's they would have to have a territory SO BIG, mating season would be almost impossible.
Besides herbivores tend to have a chemical and anatomical equipment that allows them to live on cellulose, the most common sugar in the world, but sad news, not a single mammal can digest it, only a microbial biota can and cows, elephants, yaks, and all the big herbivores, have such a community on their stomachs.
So i would say herbivores eat a food that is VERY nutritious FOR them, but not for carnivores or omnivores.

Answer 3

There are a number of reasons for this. The big one is Evolution. Plants don't have a lot of nutrition. That is why all the plant eaters have vast areas that they roam. They need a continual supply of food. You may see herds of herbavores bypass what looks to be lush african savanah, but the tall grass contains nearly no value, so they eat the shoots and when the shoots are gone they move on. They need large stomachs to process this constant appitite, everything grows to compensate. This is evolution. Elephants are not big to deter predators. They like Giraffees are big to get at yummy shoots and branches in trees. If they were big so they didn't get eaten they would have stayed the same size as there Mastadon cousins, and cows, which we have been farming and killing for food for a thousand years would be getting bigger. Incidently there have been cases of a single hungry tiger killing an elephant. Lions are to small, male lions are lazy and rarely hunt unless alone, and even then they will happily scavenge or steal food. Large predators don't exist anymore because after the last mass extinction, there was not the bounty of available food like there was before the asteriod hit. So our current predators grew up, unlike elephants that grew down. Evolution brings Equilibrium. To the guy who uses Deepak Chopra as a reference. Dolphins eat fish, fish are meat! Cabbage head! The way I look at it, cows breath valuable air, produce carbon dioxide and crap everywhere, and there hides are very useful. plants are nice to look at, have beautiful flowers and produce oxygen. Be a meat-a-terian, eat a cow, save a plant. Besides cows taste good, pigs taste good, lambs taste good. Bark tastes like bark. That's why the apendix is a useless organ now, because we figured out thousands of years ago that meat is better than bark. Vegan=throwback. Ok I'm rambaling now.

Answer 4

Herbivores are pure vegetarians and the world is slowly coming to understand the superiority of vegans which Nature had recognised longtime back and that is you do not need meat to build muscles or use your brains. In fact the most intelligent animals on earth are vegans, courtesy Animal Planet- film on Dolphins and Asian elephants. All the protein you need for building muscles you get from plant sources, the first in the food chain Pyramid.Further the huge herbivores like Elephants have through evolution learnt that their big size puts off would be predators and without resorting to violence conserved their energy and used it to better their species.

Answer 5

Herbivores are generally prey of carnivores so they need to be as big and strong as possible as a defensive mechanism just to stay alive. Most predators of these larger animal have no predators of their own so they do not need to be larger to protect themselves, just more efficient at killing.

Answer 6

Meat has more nutrients in it than plants do. So in order for the herbivore to get the same amount of nutrients as a carnivore, it needs to eat massive amounts of plant matter. If it ate as much plants as a carnivore eats meat, then they would most likely die.

Answer 7

Because they are herbivores, they don't need to run after food, thus they can be so big, and also because if they weren't so big, they would be easy prey for carnivores. ;-)

Answer 8

actually meat is one of the least nutritious foods. it may taste good but it is full of fat. the reason herbivores can get so big is because they are eating something that contains more energy.

plants create their own food storage from energy harvested from the sun. if an animal eats this plant they actually only absorb ~ 10% of the available energy from what they are eating. therefore, the higher on the food chain you get, the more you have to eat to obtain the same amount of energy.

Answer 9

They require a big gut to digest the food that they consume. Meat is easier to digest when compared to plant matter which contains cellulose. This is one theory to explain the huge size of the sauropod dinosaurs.

Answer 10

cos thay dont have to "Hunt" for food ... Trees dont run away.
Here is one for you ..If a Ferret / Pole cat was the size of a Lion it could kill a Elephant ( Power to weight to size ) ..!! Thats ONE Ferret / Pole Cat not a pack / pride.!!
Paul.

Answer 11

Isn't it because they're too big and slow to be carnivores. They'd probably love a bit of meat but have to resign themselves to eating leaves and grass.