page_title: Ruminant
section_title: How rumination works
hierarchical_section_title: Ruminant / How rumination works
caption_attribution_description: Abomasum
context_page_description: A ruminant is a mammal that eats and digests plant-based food such as grass. Ruminating mammals include cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, bison, yaks, water buffalo, deer, camels, alpacas, llamas, wildebeest, antelope, pronghorn, and nilgai. All of them are Artiodactyla, cloven-hoofed animals. The word "ruminant" comes from the Latin word ruminare which means "to chew over again".
context_section_description: Rumination works by chewing and swallowing in the normal way to begin with, and then regurgitating the semi-digested cud to re-chew it and to get the most food value out of it.
  Rumination makes the half-digested food particles smaller, before they can go through the process of digestion.
caption: Rough illustration of a ruminant digestive system
exif: {}