A gummivore is an

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize ...

animal whose diet consists primarily of the

gums The gums or gingiva (: gingivae) consist of the mucosal tissue that lies over the mandible and maxilla inside the mouth. Gum health and disease can have an effect on general health. Structure The gums are part of the soft tissue lining of the ...

and saps of

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...

(about 90%) and insects for protein. Notable gummivores include

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

, terrestrial

primates Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians ( monkeys and apes). Primates arose 74–63 ...

like certain

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are twenty-two New World monkey species of the genera '' Callithrix'', '' Cebuella'', '' Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term ...

s and

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s. These animals that live off of the injuries of trees live from about 8m off of the ground up to the canopies. The feeding habit of gummivores is gummivory.Plavcan, J. M., & Kay, R. (1962). Reconstructing behavior in the primate fossil record. (pp. 165–170). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers. Retrieved fro
Google Books.
/ref>

Specific traits

An Old World example of a gummivore is fork-marked lemurs, whose diet is about 90% gum

exudates An exudate is a fluid released by an organism through pores or a wound, a process known as exuding or exudation. ''Exudate'' is derived from ''exude'' 'to ooze' from Latin 'to (ooze out) sweat' (' 'out' and ' 'to sweat'). Medicine An exudate ...

from a tree's branches or trunk.Merrit, J. (2010). The biology of small mammals. (pp. 89–93). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved fro
Google Books.
/ref> Lemurs have a “ tooth comb”, made up of the lower

incisors Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

and canines. Fork-marked lemurs have more robust toothcombs than most other lemurs and use these specialized teeth to gouge the bark from the surface of a tree. Fork-marked lemurs also consume the gum seeping from beneath the bark of trees, via spaces created by beetles. Their long, slim tongue enables them to access these openings in the bark. They also possess a symbiotic bacterium that assists in the digestion of the gum, starting the process in the mouth. The black-tufted marmoset (''Callithrix penicillata'') is a New World example that mostly lives off of the sap from trees. To do this, the monkey uses their lengthened lower incisors to chew through the bark of a tree and obtain the sap; this classifies it as a gummivore. The incisors are extremely specialized, since they are the marmosets’ “tool” to acquire food. The teeth have a thickened enamel on the exterior, but lack the enamel on the inside creating a tough, chiseling tool. Both the lemurs and marmosets have a

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards ...

-like hand and catlike claws, which are extremely useful in clinging on to trees for extended amounts of time.

Feeding strategies

Before feeding time comes around, the marmosets must prepare their food by chiseling multiple small holes into the

bark Bark may refer to: Common meanings * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Arts and entertainment * ''Bark'' (Jefferson Airplane album), ...

s of trees. The actual bite left behind is about 2–3 cm across and just deep enough to retrieve sap. After about a day passes, the primates will return to their bite marks and consume the leaking sap. In order to consume gums and other indirect sources of nutrients, these animals must have a digestive system to compensate. Gums of trees are beta-linked

polysaccharides Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long-chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with wat ...

that are not easily digested. These require a form of microbial

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

to acquire the essential nutrients. This process takes the marmoset roughly 17.5 hours (± 1.6 hours) to completely digest, while

carnivores A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

take a mere 3–4 hours to digest proteins from meat. Though the digestive process takes some time, the gummivorous mammals have relatively low daily caloric needs, as they do not expend as much energy to acquire their food. Gums contain

galactose Galactose (, ''wikt:galacto-, galacto-'' + ''wikt:-ose#Suffix 2, -ose'', ), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweetness, sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epime ...

in form of galacturonic acid. This sugar is part of lactose, which is milk sugar, so consumption of gums in early mammals or their precursors might be a cause for development of mammary glands in mammals along with maternal instincts to feed their offspring and increased body lipids in females of early mammals.

Shelter effects

Captivity in animals drives them away from their natural instincts and behaviors. Some gummivores are commonly held captive and even as household pets. A gummivore like the marmoset has the digestive system and oral tools required for feasting on saps of trees, but when fed more nutrient filled foods, there will be a severe change in the plasticity of the mammal. For example, if a marmoset's diet is changed, over the next few generations of that animal, it will adapt to those foods, rendering their natural adaptations useless such as the chiseling teeth and the bacterial fermentation.

Notes

References

{{Reflist Wildlife Primate behavior Ethology Animals by eating behaviors