ABSTRACT
Nonruminant herbivorous mammals include a small number of commercially important animals and a larger number of wild species.[1] Digestive strategies clearly differ among these herbivores. Mammals lack enzymes to hydrolyze a substantial portion of plant material (cell walls), but various pregastric (including ruminant) and postgastric microbial fermentation systems have evolved that enable herbivorous mammals to utilize fibrous substrates. Digestive strategy and body size data for East African nonforest herbivores indicated that ruminants dominated medium body sizes, whereas nonruminants prevailed among very large and small herbivores[2] (Fig. 1).
