Rumination and Eructation.
Rumination is
what is commonly called chewing the
cud. When a ruminant animal grazes, it
doesn't do much initial chewing. Later when the animal is at rest,
boluses of coarse roughage are regurgitated up into the mouth, mixed
with saliva, chewed thoroughly and reswallowed. The finely ground
material sinks into the depths of the rumen.
Eructation is the
periodic belching of rumen gas. This is necessary to eliminate the gas that
is produced as a byproduct of microbial fermentation.
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