Tasmanian Devils Essay

1715 Words4 Pages

LITERATURE REVIEW

TASMANIAN DEVILS
In short, digestion is the process where food is broken down and then absorbed by the body. The digestive system is extremely important as it is the main factor in how much of a foods nutrients are utilized. The process of digestion is essential for the body as it is the body's source for energy.
Tasmanian devils are carnivores, meaning they strictly feed off meat. The main differences that distinguishes a carnivores digestive system with other mammals include the requirement of a diet high in protein and a simple digestive system. This simple digestive system is a result of the animal only consuming protein and not plants, which is more complicated to digest. A main feature characterizing the carnivores …show more content…

Their main source of food is from feeding upon carcasses of dead animals, such as roadkill, but they are also able to hunt their prey. Their powerful jaws are the main structure that gives them the ability to survive off carrion (animals that have already died), which is the majority of their diet. These jaws allow the tasmanian devil to devour their food entirely. They are able to consume every part of the animal - including fur, organs and bones. Devils have such strong jaws that they can even bite through metal traps and have the capability to opening 75-80 degrees. They generally have no specific preference for their diet and eat a range of animals, as they are strictly carnivorous, surviving off birds, wallabies, and small mammals. Tasmanian devils eat on average 15% of their body weight in food each day. But, because of their fast digestion system, they would be able to eat up to 40% of their body weight in just 30 …show more content…

The lower esophageal sphincter relaxes and does not function properly, allowing the stomach contents/acids to escape and plash up back into the esophagus. The esophagus is designed to close off, forcing food and liquids to remain in the stomach after they get there, but this medical disorder stops this process (seen in figure 3) and severely affects the digestive system. The disease progresses from a weak lower esophageal sphincter, prone to allowing harmful gastric fluid to reflux back up the individuals esophagus. Symptoms include burning pain the chest after eating, heartburn, difficulty swallowing, sleep disruption and even upper respiratory problems . Relief from this problem includes new medical therapy (acid suppression medications) like Prevacid® and Nexium® which affect the gastric acid production. These, however, acid reflux does not respond to medical therapy and it does not address or repair the underlying cause of the disease which is a weak sphincter or sphincter defect between the stomach and esophagus. Safe and effective procedures for patients who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are only recently being discovered. A breakthrough in medical studies introduced a new operation that has the potential to cure GERD. LINX is a small implant that comprises of interlinked titanium beads with magnetic

More about Tasmanian Devils Essay

Open Document