What animals eat oranges?
In this brief guide, we will answer the question, “What animals eat oranges?”. We will further elaborate on which animals attract oranges and what is the reason for their attraction.
What animals eat oranges?
There are many species of animals who like to consume oranges due to which gardeners mostly find drilled or half-eaten oranges. Animals that eat oranges include
- Northern mockingbirds
- Squirrel monkeys
- Squirrels
- Red-bellied woodpeckers
- Black rats
- Raccoons
- Tamarins
In addition, many small lizards, turtles and terrapins may also snack on oranges every once in a while.
If you have planted oranges in your backyard, you must have an idea of how they give a beautiful aroma, making the atmosphere pleasant. Not only do humans love to eat juicy oranges but some animals also like oranges as snacks.
Let us now discuss the animals who love to eat oranges:
Squirrel monkeys
Squirrel monkeys are omnivorous animals that mainly feed up on fruits and insects. And they can have lots of oranges as a snack.
Fun fact: Squirrel monkeys are regarded as one of the most clever monkeys since their brains are considerably bigger than other monkeys of the same size.
Squirrel monkeys are small, and the most oversized ones can have a maximum weight of one kilogram. They can grow to a maximum of 35 cm, while their tails can have an extra 40 cm.
Tamarins
Tamarins are little monkeys that can be compared to a squirrel. They are omnivorous, so feed up on plenty of fruits, other plants, insects, and also bird eggs. Among fruits, they love to bite on oranges.
Fun fact: Tamarins are great jumpers; they can jump up to 18 metres from trees to the surface without hurting themselves.
Tamarins are all black and colourful with red bellies, brown, and white. Tamarins have typical and impressive facial hair that resembles a funny moustache. They can have a weight of a maximum of 500 g.
Red-bellied woodpecker
Unsurprisingly, many birds enjoy eating oranges, and one among them is a genuine orange fanatic, and that is a red-bellied woodpecker. It is named red-bellied, but the body part of a woodpecker that has a red colour is its head, rather than the belly.
Fun fact: Red-bellied woodpeckers love to pre-plan, and they will often keep their food in small holes they have constructed in trees.
Woodpeckers are famous for their drumming, and they even do it to allure partners. They also make diverse sounds and are regarded as clangorous birds.
Northern Mockingbirds
Northern Mockingbirds are mesmerising omnivorous creatures that feed upon fruits and insects. They love to bite on pulpy oranges.
Fun fact: The Northern Mockingbirds are known to imitate and sing more than 200 songs of birds, other animals, and insects.
The Northern Mockingbirds are small and have brown to grey feathers, with a pale tummy. These birds also have white blotches of feathers on their wings that can be noticed while they fly.
Squirrels
Squirrels are little to medium-sized mammals that belong to the rodent animal ranking.
These bushy-tailed animals are not particular about nutrition. They are omnivorous animals who feed upon almost everything they can discover, that can be flowers, fungus, seeds, roots, insects, little mammals, birds and other squirrels too.
However, squirrels like to add sweet items to their diet; hence, they love consuming oranges.
Fun fact: Squirrels typically store their food for winters, or when they encounter a lack of food.
Raccoons
Raccoons are widely prevalent creatures characterised by their face masks that quite fit their thieving traits.
They are real opportunistic animals, and they eat a vast variety of foodstuffs. Nuts, fruits, eggs, insects, and crayfish are their most typical feasts; however, raccoons will sometimes find some foodstuffs in the closest garbage bins.
Fun fact: Raccoons love oranges. And like us humans, they use their claws to remove the skin of the orange. So if you discover an orange peel on the floor of your yard, your prime speculation should be a raccoon.
Raccoons are considered pests, they not only eat and destroy fruit plants, but they can also dig deep into the soil and vandalise the lawn.
Black Rats
Black rats are also called roof rats or ship rats. Black rats are omnivorous, and they can feed upon almost everything; that is why many regard them as pests, specifically the farmers. They love to feed upon oranges, and they can cause notable damage to orange trees in farms.
Fun fact: Black rats are anointed black due to the dark colours of their hair, but you will mostly find dark-brown to light-brown rats. Based on the subspecies, they can be small or large in size.
Conclusion
In this brief guide, we have provided an answer to the question, “What animals eat oranges?”. We have further elaborated on which animals are attracted to oranges and what is the reason for their attraction.
