English to Portuguese Science Zoology herpetology

Iguanas are folivores. They consume primarily leaves in their natural environment. They are also hindgut fermenters, which means that they require microbes to ferment the high-fiber foods they ingest before the nutrients may be utilized. This is similar to how ruminants digest food. This process of digestion requires a high body temperature, and for this reason, wild iguanas will usually bask for about four hours in the morning to elevate their body temperature prior to foraging. Studies of wild iguanas have shown that adult iguanas, by basking in the sun, will maintain a body temperature between 96.8 degrees F and 98.6 degrees F. It is probably not coincidental that iguanas utilize a temperature range that is very similar to that of mammalian hindgut fermenters, considering that the microorganisms responsible for fermentation do their best work in that temperature range, regardless of which animal they are renting space from.