Why Do Some Animals Eat Poop?

Опубликовано 29 августа 2018, 19:00

Learn more about quokkas over on @animalogic youtube.com/watch?v=nj-EGNN5Hw...
Animals eat their own poop in order to gain extra access to nutrients or to microbes that help digest those nutrients.

LEARN MORE
**************
To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Coprophagy: Consuming feces
- Allocoprophagy: Consuming others’ feces
- Autocoprophagy: Consuming one’s own feces
- Fecal microbiota transplant: A treatment for C. diff that involves transplanting feces from a healthy individual into a patient.
- Cecotropes: Also known as night poops, these are the soft, shiny pellets that rabbits excrete and then consume.
- Pap: A special substance produced by mother koalas that their babies feed on during the transition from drinking milk to eating eucalyptus leaves.

CREDITS
*********
Script Writer: David Goldenberg
Script Editor: Emily Elert
Video Illustrator: Ever Salazar
Video Director: David Goldenberg
Video Narrator: Emily Elert
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
neptunestudios.info

SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH
**************************
If you like what we do, you can help us!:
- Become our patron: patreon.com/MinuteEarth
- Our merch: dftba.com/minuteearth
- Our book: minuteearth.com/books
- Share this video with your friends and family
- Leave us a comment (we read them!)

OUR LINKS
************
Youtube | youtube.com/MinuteEarth
TikTok | tiktok.com/@minuteearth
Twitter | twitter.com/MinuteEarth
Instagram | instagram.com/minute_earth
Facebook | facebook.com/Minuteearth
Website | minuteearth.com
Apple Podcasts| podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/...

REFERENCES
**************
Masi, S., and Brueur, T. (2018). Dialiumseed coprophagy in wild western gorillas: Multiple nutritional benefits and toxicity reduction hypotheses. American Journal of Primatology. 80:4 (e22752). Retrieved from: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/296641...

Osawa, R. Blanshard, W. and Ocallaghan, P. (1993). Microbiological Studies of the Intestinal Microflora of the Koala, Phascolarctos-Cinereus .2. Pap, a Special Maternal Feces Consumed by Juvenile Koalas. Australian Journal of Zoology. 41(6): 611-620. Retrieved from: publish.csiro.au/ZO/ZO9930611.

Mack, A., and Druliner, G. (2003). A Non-Intrusive Method for Measuring Movements and Seed Dispersal in Cassowaries. Journal of Field Ornithology. 74:2 (193-196). Retrieved from: jstor.org/stable/4131128

Eckman, L. (2018). Personal communication. Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, UCSD.

Suen, G. (2018). Personal communication. Assistant professor, Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Brogan, J. (2016). Everyone Poops. Some Animals Eat It. Why?. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from: smithsonianmag.com/science-nat...