Tadarida brasiliensis
The Brazilian free-tailed bats have a very unique way of digesting food. To understand their why their digestive system is the way it is, we must first look at their diet. Brazilian free-tailed bat's diet consists mainly of a variation of insects, for example moths, beetles, flies, ants, and wasps. Due to their diet, they have more teeth than herbivores, their teeth are short and relatively sharp for crushing insects. These large volumes of food are processed through the digestive tract rapidly. The stomach of the bat is large, and the small intestine is long and twisted, and the large intestine is nearly identical to the small intestine. The enlarged, complex stomach and long intestine provide more space for digestion and absorption of nutrients from the large volumes of insects it consumes. The food travels from the mouth through the pharynx and down into the stomach where the digestive enzymes help break down the insects. It then goes from the stomach through the intestines, which like humans absorb remaining nutrients, and then out the anus.