133 Animals that Chew Cud (A to Z List & Pictures)

Examples of animals that chew the cud include Cows, Goats, Alpacas, Blackbuck, Auroch, Antelope, Chevrotain, and Duiker.

Cud is a term used to describe the food that cows, sheep, goats, and deer bring back up from their stomachs. Animals that chew the cud are ruminants.

Cud is food that an animal chews and swallows again for additional processing of the food in a stomach or rumen.

Cows are one of the most well-known examples of this type of animal.

Examples of Animals that Chew Cud

Ruminant animals have a four-chamber stomach. When they eat grass or hay it goes into the first chamber as food for energy (the rumen).

Once this is broken down, the animal regurgitates its food to be chewed again before swallowing it for the second time. This is called chewing cud.

1. Auroch

Aurochs were wild herds of cattle that lived in Europe. They could grow to be over six feet tall and weigh up to 3000 pounds.

2. Antelope

Antelope chew the cud, and we can see this process by watching them. They will regurgitate their food and crop it again before they finally swallow it down to be digested in their stomach.

It is not a very quick process – sometimes taking up to an hour or more for antelopes.

3. Beira

A Beira antelope is found in Africa. They are known to be browsers that eat leaves, fruit, flowers, and bark from trees which makes them a very unique ruminant.

4. Blackbuck

The blackbuck is a species of antelope that lives in parts of India and Pakistan. They eat grasses, leaves, flowers, and fruit.

Their habitat is open plains where they are able to move around and graze.

The male blackbuck has horns which it uses for protection against predators such as the tiger or leopard – they are also used during mating.

5. Bontebok

The Bontebok is native to South Africa. It can survive on different vegetation, but it particularly favors the nutritious leaves of the sourplum bush and similar plants.

6. Chevrotain

Chevrotain lives in various regions of Asia and Africa. They eat a variety of different foods depending on the area they live in, including leaves, fruit, and insects.

They also have sharp teeth that allow them to easily chew through hard animal skins such as those belonging to reptiles.

Chevrotain is a nocturnal animal that likes to sleep during the day and is active at night.

7. Dibatag

Dibatag lives in the deserts and grasslands of Ethiopia. They eat a mixture of leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds that they obtain from bushes or trees during the day.

Dibatag is able to communicate using a range of different calls including alarm calls to alert other dibatags of the presence of predators.

8. Dik-dik

Dik-dik lives in the eastern and southern parts of Africa. They are herbivores, so they eat plants – usually grasses or shrubs.

This type of animal is a ruminant, which means that it has one stomach with four different compartments and uses rumination, or chewing their cud, to break down partially digested food.

9. Duiker

Duikers are small antelopes that live in various places around Africa. They can be found mainly in the forests of Central and West Africa, but they have also been seen near mountains or on savannas.

Duiker feed on leaves, fruits, sprouts – anything green! Their diet is herbivorous.

10. Dwarf Blue Sheep

Dwarf blue sheep live in the mountains of Mongolia to the Himalayas, where they eat a combination of grasses, leaves, and shrubs.

They grow to about 20-31 inches tall at the shoulder which is pretty small for a type of domestic animal.

11. Eurasian Elk

The Eurasian elk lives in the forests of Europe and Asia. These animals are herbivores, which means they eat plants such as leaves, acorns, and berries.

They tend to feed during the early morning or after dark because it is harder for them to find food when there’s lots of light.

Related Article: Are Eurasian Elk Vegetarian?

12. Fallow Deer

Fallow deer are native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia. They mainly eat grass but will also eat leaves, fruit, and bark of trees if given the chance.

13. Four-Horned Antelope

Four-horned antelope live in the grasslands and forests of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. They eat mostly plants like roots, leaves, and seeds but they will also eat insects if there is no other food available to them.

14. Gaur

Gaur lives in the tropical forests of south and southeastern Asia. they eat plants like grass, bamboo shoots, leaves, etc.

15. Gayal

Gayal is a species of wild cattle that live in South Asia. They graze on grasses, leaves, and fruits found within the forests where they live. Gayals are known to chew their cud for up to 10 hours per day.

16. Gazelle

Gazelle are herbivores that eat only plants. They live in savannas and grasslands, where they can find vegetation to eat like leaves of shrubs and trees, herbs, grasses, and bark from smaller bushes.

These animals are ruminants because they chew the cud – food brought back up from their stomachs for a second time.

17. Gerenuk

Gerenuk lives in eastern Africa. They have a unique tongue that is long and thin, which helps them get leaves off of very tall trees.

One of their most interesting habits is standing on their hind legs to reach new food sources.

18. Giraffe

Giraffes live in sub-Saharan Africa. They usually eat leaves, twigs, and fruit that is found on the ground but they can also chew bark from shrubs. Giraffes also love the acacia tree and will eat its leaves when they are available.

19. Goa

Goa Antelopes are native to China. They live in open grasslands and dry forests, where they eat mainly plant materials like shrubs and small trees.

Goa antelope only have one young at a time, called calves.

20. Grey Goral

Grey gorals live in the higher altitudes of the Himalayan mountain range. They eat pretty much anything they can find, including plants and fruits.

21. Grysbok

The grysbok is a small antelope that lives in sub-Saharan Africa. They are found on open plains where there are trees for them to shelter under during the heat of the day.

Grysbocks do not live together as they tend to be solitary animals, but if their territories overlap then they will interact with each other.

22. Hartebeest

Hartebeest lives in herds of up to 300 animals. They tend to be most active at dawn and dusk, but can also be found roaming the plains during the day when they are looking for food.

Hartebeests eat a wide variety of plants including grasses, shrubs, succulents, and leaves from trees such as acacia.

23. Himalayan Serow

Himalayan serow lives in Asia and eats leaves, grasses, fruits, and various plants. They also have long horns that they use for self-defense from predators or as a way to fight with other Himalayan serows.

These animals are often found on the sides of mountains where there is fresh vegetation to keep them fed throughout the year.

24. Himalayan Tahr

Himalayan tahr lives in the Himalayan region, between Nepal and India. They are herbivores that eat grasses, herbs, shrubs, and leaves.

25. Hog Deer

Hog Deer live in the forests of Indo-Gangetic Plain in Pakistan.

They eat grasses, bamboo leaves, herbs, and fruit buds. They can also be seen feeding on cultivated crops such as rice when they are available to them.

In general, though their natural diet is not far from that of wild deer found elsewhere in the world.

26. Huemul

Huemul are native to the Andean regions of South America. They’re actually not that common in any one area, so they have a large range which includes parts of Chile and Argentina.

The main reason these animals are endangered is because they have been hunted for their meat – this has put them in danger greatly.

27. Imbabala (aka Bushbuck)

Bushbuck are found living in the dense, tropical forests of Western and Eastern Africa. They feed on leaves, berries and fruit that they find within their forest territory. Bushbucks also enjoy grasses – especially during dry seasons when it is harder to locate food sources.

28. Impala

Impala are large antelope that can be found in the savannas of southern Africa. Their natural habitats have been drastically altered by human activities, so impalas were introduced to protected areas throughout their native range.

They eat a variety of grasses and other plants as well as fruits during certain times of the year, but they prefer to graze on grasses and browse shrubs.

29. Japanese Serow

The Japanese Serow lives in Japan and is a member of the antelope family. A serows diet can change depending on what time of year it is – during spring they will eat more fruit than other times because there isn’t much else around at that time.

30. Klipspringer

One of the smallest antelope, the Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus) lives in rocky terrain and steep grassy slopes. It is a grazer with a wide range of plant types that it can eat; this diet gives it an appearance that’s somewhere between that of a deer and a goat.

31. Kob

Kob antelope have a very specific habitat. They live in grasslands and savannas, usually near water. They are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.

This makes them quite easy to spot, as they continually search for new plants to eat.

32. Kouprey

Kouprey are rare cattle that live in Asia. They are related to the bison, but they have horns like antelopes.

Most of their diet is made up of plants and grasses, although they will eat leaves occasionally. Kouprey are endangered because humans hunt them for food or kill them for trophies.

33. Kudu

Kudu live in Africa and can be found in grasslands, open bush and mountains. Their favourite food is the leaves of thorny acacia trees. They also eat shrubs as well as vines and fruit.

They will sometimes strip off bark from trees to get at the nutritious cambium layer underneath. This could cause long term damage to the tree. Farmers often fence off acacia trees to prevent this happening.

34. Lechwe

The lechwe lives in Africa at the very south of Sudan and just above Zambia. It eats aquatic plants, grasses, seeds, fruits, flowers and young twigs.

35. Long-Tailed Goral

The long-tailed goral is found in regions of southeastern Tibet, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Yunnan province in China.

They are herbivores that feed on leaves, acorns, fruits, grasses and seeds if they can find them.

More Examples of Animals that Chew Cud

Garreth

Hi, I’m Garreth. Living in South Africa I’ve had the pleasure of seeing most of these animals up close and personal. When I was younger I always wanted to be a game ranger but unfortunately, life happens and now at least I get to write about them and tell you my experiences.