What are obligate Carnivores?

Obligate carnivores are known to be carnivores that would truly need to eat meat because all of the nutrients that they need can only be found in animal meat. Some people refer to this type of carnivores as “true” carnivores. Most of these carnivores are unable to eat different types of plant food.

They do not have the physiology in order to digest certain types of plant food which may eventually lead to some painful digestive issues for them. Some sea mammals that are considered to be obligate carnivores are dolphins and sea lions. There are also other animals that are not mammals that can also be considered as carnivores, such as certain types of fish that would not eat plants.

Obligate carnivore, also known as “true carnivore,” is a group of carnivores that only eat meat. There are some carnivores that, in the absence of meat, can survive with vegetation, but obligate carnivores cannot survive without meat. Meat is a necessity for them. Examples of obligate carnivores are the wild cats – Lions and tigers.’ The digestive system has adapted eating and only digesting raw flesh. Compared to another group of animals, obligate carnivores have the shortest digestive tract.

Obligate carnivores lack the metabolic abilities to direct plant-based nutrition. Obligate carnivores also have high protein requirements. They require essential nutrients such as taurine, which is almost exclusive in animals. These carnivores are unable to synthesize taurine by themselves. Other essential nutrients that they require include retinol, arachidonic acid, and arginine. These nutrients are all present in animal flesh.