1 / 9

Coprophagia Why eat poop?

Coprophagia Why eat poop?. Laura Skorina SAT-TAS Winter Retreat Franklin Institute January 19 th , 2012.

sileas
Télécharger la présentation

Coprophagia Why eat poop?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Coprophagia Why eat poop? Laura Skorina SAT-TAS Winter Retreat Franklin Institute January 19th, 2012 The work reported herein was supported by the National Science Foundation, award # 0841377, through a grant to Temple University. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position of the supporting agencies and no official endorsement should be inferred.

  2. Rabbits (Also: capybara, hamsters) Hindgut fermenters Compare horses, rhinos Purpose: to digest cellulose (a rumen is an alternative solution) Also: extract vitamins (B12) second pass through the gut

  3. Hindgut fermentation • 3 kinds of stuff in gut: • Non-fibrous material (sugars, protein) • “slowly fermented” (relatively indigestible) fiber -> get rid of • “readily fermentable” fiber -> send to caecum

  4. Fecal matter (4 hrs) Cecal pellets (8 hrs)

  5. What if they don't eat their poop?

  6. Dogs - why? • Instinct – a history of scavenging • Keeping the den clean • Copying other dogs • Natural puppy exploration • Nutrient deficiency, parasites, pancreatitis • Nutrition supplement • Attention (incl. negative) • Boredom

  7. Chimpanzees Gorillas Bonobos Re-ingestion of seeds?

  8. Coprophagy to establish or repopulate the intestinal flora • Elephants, pandas, koalas, hippos – babies born without intestinal bacteria; eat the feces of mother or other members of herd • In people:Fecal bacteriotherapy -- introduction of bacteria from feces of a close relative, to restore healthy intestinal balance after cases of ulcerative colitis or other bad-bacteria infections

More Related