Regurgitation (digestion)

Flesh fly, from the family Sarcophagidae "blowing a bubble". One explanation for this behaviour is that it concentrates the fly's meal by the process of evaporation. The diet of the flesh fly is very high in water content. The fly regurgitates the liquid portion of the food, holds it while evaporation reduces the water content and the fly then swallows a much more concentrated meal without the water content. This continues until sufficient amount of liquid is left for the fly. – Australian Museum

Regurgitation is the expulsion of material from the pharynx, or esophagus, usually characterized by the presence of undigested food or blood.[1]

Regurgitation is used by a number of species to feed their young.[2] This is typically in circumstances where the young are at a fixed location and a parent must forage or hunt for food, especially under circumstances where the carriage of small prey would be subject to robbing by other predators or the whole prey is larger than can be carried to a den or nest. Some bird species also occasionally regurgitate pellets of indigestible matter such as bones and feathers.[3]

It is in most animals a normal and voluntary process unlike the complex vomiting reflex in response to toxins.

  1. ^ Nelson, R.W. and C. G. Couto. Small Animal Internal Medicine, 4th ed. 2009.
  2. ^ Keeling, Linda K.; Gonyou, Harold W. (2001). Social behaviour in farm animals. CABI Publishing. p. 69. ISBN 0-85199-717-1.
  3. ^ Loon, Rael; Loon, Hélène (2005). Birds: the inside story. Struik Publishers. p. 183. ISBN 1-77007-151-2.

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