Digestive kinetics of moose (Alces alces), wapiti (Cervus elaphus) and cattle

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Abstract
Intake, rumen digesta pool sizes, ruminal digestion rates, passage rates of liquid and particle pools and faecal particle-size distrubutions of grass, browse and lucerne diets were compared in ruminally fistulated moose, wapiti and cattle. For each diet, ruminal digestion rates (nylon bag technique) were similar for the three ruminants. Intakes, rumen digesta pool sizes and passage rates varied among species and higher rates were associated with passage of larger faecal particles. However, it was not possible to simply rank the three ruminants as representative grazers (cattle), browsers (moose) and mixed feeders (wapiti) since intakes, passage rates and rumen pool sizes interacted with diet and season. Contrary to expectation, digestible dry matter intakes of each species were not greatest for their respective typical diets.