carnivore

Organism that eats other animals. In zoology, a mammal of the order Carnivora.

Carnivores have the greatest range of body size of any mammalian order, from the 100 g/3.5 oz weasel to the 800 kg/1,764 lb polar bear.

The characteristics of the Carnivora are sharp teeth, small incisors, a well-developed brain, a simple stomach, reduced or absent caecum, and incomplete or absent clavicles (collarbones); there are never less than four toes on each foot; the scaphoid and lunar bones are fused in the hand; and the claws are generally sharp and powerful.

The mammalian order Carnivora includes raccoons, cats, dogs, and bears.

Although the name carnivore describes the flesh-eating ancestry of the order Carnivora, that order nevertheless includes pandas, which are herbivorous, and civet cats, which eat fruit.