Ruminants and
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When you think about something over and over again, you can be said to be ruminating on the subject matter. You ponder it and you meditate on it. It is like you chew it over in your brain repetitively.
Well, alpacas and other similar animals literally chew their cud multiple times in order to properly digest their food.
Mammals like cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk, giraffes, antelope, pronghorn, wildebeest, bison, and yaks, and camelids like alpacas, llamas, camels, guanaco, and vicuna all chew their cud.
Warning: Lots of chemistry, anatomy, and physiology is forthcoming! Inquiring minds only! Proceed at your own risk!
These animals are all from the taxonomy order of Artiodactyla.
They forage for grass and hay which would be extremely difficult for us to digest with our one stomach. But these mammals have several stomach compartments to help them out. Most of them have four compartments called rumen, reticulum, omasum and abamasum.
However, the camelids have just three stomach compartments called C-1, C-2, and C-3. Thus, the camelids are often called pseudoruminants to differentiate them from the true ruminants.
The food is initially chewed, mixed with saliva, and then swallowed. After the plant-based food is partially digested, they regurgitate the cud bolus, add more saliva, and chew it up awhile longer. This process is repeated as necessary. Yum!
In camelids, C-1 and C-2 are the anaerobic (low oxygen) fermentation chambers where microorganisms partially degrade the tough fibrous complex carbohydrates composed of cellulose and hemicelluloses as well as other carbohydrates such as starch and pectins. The microorganisms consist of bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. The products that are produced by fermentation are volatile fatty acids (VFA) like acetate, propionate, and butyrate as well as glucose. The camelids absorb the VFAs, and the microbes use the sugars as a source of energy for their own reproduction.
The C-1 and C-2 areas contain saccules that are believed to aid in buffering of saliva and absorption of fermentation products. The vigorous motility cycle along with frequent eructation (burping of gases) reduces the incidence of bloat in camelids.
Camelids retain particles in C-1 until they are very small. This low rate of passage results in the high digestive efficiency for which camelids are noted.
The contents of C-1 and C-2 travel through an elongated tubular passage to enter the C-3 compartment. This chamber contains proteolytic enzymes and hydrochloric acid which digest protein rather like our own stomach.
Then, the digestive juices enter the small intestine for some further digestion and then absorption.
By the way, ruminants are not born with a well-functioning fermentation system. A cria really does not want to ferment its milk! Instead, the milk passes rather quickly through a muscular groove by-passing C-1, and enters C-2 and C-3 so that the milk proteins can be digested. The fermentation system develops within the first few months.
So, when an alpaca spits, you now know what they are spitting! Those fermentation products can be quite stinky! Something for you to ruminate about!
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