4 Animals That Practice Coprophagia
Coprophagia is a practice carried out by several species around the world. It is a little known biological adaptation, which in humans generates a lot of rejection. However, animals that resort to eating their own faeces – or that of others – do so for a specific reason.
In the natural world, each species specializes in a unique ecological niche. Some animals are responsible for the transformation of organic matter that no living thing will reuse. If you want to know more about coprophagia, read on.
What is coprophagia?
Coprophagia is defined as the ingestion of faeces or excrement and is a common behavior in some species of animals. The goal of coprophagia is to ingest essential nutrients that have not been digested by passing through the digestive system of the animal that excreted them and would otherwise be wasted.
Only some living beings practice coprophagia as a form of natural food. Among them are both invertebrates and vertebrates. On the other hand, only those animals that feed exclusively or almost exclusively on the droppings of others, such as some beetles, are considered strictly coprophages.
On the other hand, there are the occasional coprophages, i.e. animals that eat other foods but sometimes ingest their own feces. This is because their gut cannot completely break down food and extract all the nutrients in one go. Because of this, they ingest the feces again and digest it a second time.
Additionally, some animals, such as rabbits, excrete 2 different types of feces, one that is eaten and one that is not. Stools that can be eaten are called caecotrophs or nocturnal stools .
Which animals practice coprophagia?
Here are some of the wild animals that practice coprophagia, both exclusive and occasional.
1. Rabbits
Rabbits consume some of their feces, especially the so-called caecotrophs . This stool is soft and consists of partially digested food, from which they extract nutrients.
Some species related to rabbits, such as guinea pigs, lack a sophisticated digestive system. For this reason, the feces provide them with nutrients and vitamins. Hamsters also reabsorb vitamins B and K thanks to coprophagia.
2. Chimpanzee
It has been observed that on some occasions chimpanzees can feed on their feces. The reason they do this is the same as with rabbits. The seeds they eat do not allow them to get all the nutrients in the first digestion. Therefore, they eat them again in order to extract all their benefits.
This behavior has also been observed in gorillas, who can ingest their own droppings or those of other gorillas. And there are many monkeys that ingest the droppings of other species.
3. Dung beetles
Dung beetles feed on the droppings of other animals. Depending on whether they are young or adult, they feed on one type of matter or another. Juveniles of dung beetle feed on raw material debris from solid droppings. This is because they have no specialized mouthparts with which to suck the liquid from this raw material.
Some dung beetle species may use manure to build their homes, where they lay their eggs. Furthermore, this behavior has also been observed in other insects, such as flies and other diptera larvae.
4. Dogs
It can be admitted as normal when coprophagia is performed by wild beings. However, when practiced by pets such as dogs, people can be shocked.
Coprophagia is a natural behavior, although it is not very common to see it in dogs. While it sounds surprising, it is believed that this behavior may be a learned habit from their mothers.
When mothers clean their babies, they stimulate the perineal region, which causes the baby to urinate or defecate. The mother cleans the puppy, a behavior she learns and can repeat throughout her life.
If owners are not comfortable with this behavior, they can take steps to redirect it. For this, it is recommended to change the pet’s diet, collect its feces immediately or perform exercise routines for the dog.
Other mammals that practice coprophagia
Some mammalian species sporadically perform coprophagia to obtain bacteria they do not possess. Koalas ingest their mother’s droppings to incorporate the normal microbiome into their digestive tract. In this way the young can digest the food eaten.
Another example is pigs, who like to eat feces. It seems that this practice is beneficial for the soil and water, that is, for the environment.
When pigs ingest feces, they may subconsciously practice a tactic to save food and produce even less organic waste. However, at the same time this increases the risks of disease and virus contagion between them.
Coprophagia is a common technique in the animal world, although the best known examples are rabbits or rodents. Furthermore, this evolutionary strategy has considerable ecological importance.
