What type of animal eats only meat?

Animals that eat only meat are called carnivores. Carnivores gain all or most of their nutrition from the flesh of other animals. Carnivores are usually either predators, which hunt and kill the animals they eat, or scavengers, which eat only animals killed by other creatures.

The word carnivore comes from the Latin "carnivorus," which literally translates to "flesh-eating." It entered English in 1839 from the French language. In taxonomy, it refers specifically to the mammalian order "Carnivora," which consists of animals such as bears, dogs, cats, seals and weasels. Some mammals within the Carnivora order are not carnivores, such as the giant panda.