text: Other animals A cecum is present in most amniote species, and also in lungfish, but not in any living species of amphibian. In reptiles, it is usually a single median structure, arising from the dorsal side of the large intestine. Birds typically have two paired ceca, as do, unlike other mammals, hyraxes. Parrots do not have ceca.
  Most mammalian herbivores have a relatively large cecum.  In many species, it is considerably wider than the colon. For some herbivores such as lagomorphs (rabbits, hares, pikas), easily digestible food is processed in the gastrointestinal tract & expelled as regular feces.  But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, lagomorphs ferment fiber in the cecum and then expel the contents as cecotropes, which are reingested (cecotrophy).  The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize the nutrients.
  In contrast, obligate carnivores, whose diets contain little or no plant matter, have a reduced cecum, which is often partially or wholly replaced by the appendix. Mammalian species which do not develop a cecum include raccoons, bears, and the red panda.
  Many fish have a number of small outpockets, called pyloric ceca, along their intestine; despite the name, they are not homologous with the cecum of amniotes – their purpose is to increase the overall area of the digestive epithelium. Some invertebrates, such as squid, may also have structures with the same name, but these have no relationship with those of vertebrates.