Hindgut fermentation

Hindgut fermentation is a digestive process seen in monogastric herbivores (animals with a simple, single-chambered stomach). Cellulose is digested with the aid of symbiotic microbes including bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes.^[1] The microbial fermentation occurs in the digestive organs that follow the small intestine: the cecum and large intestine. Examples of hindgut fermenters include proboscideans and large odd-toed ungulates such as horses and rhinos, as well as small animals such as rodents, rabbits and koalas.^[2] In contrast, foregut fermentation is the form of cellulose digestion seen in ruminants such as cattle which have a four-chambered stomach,^[3] as well as in sloths, macropodids, some monkeys, and one bird, the hoatzin.^[4]