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Why Do Some Animals Eat Poop?

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Learn more about quokkas over on Animalogic:
Animals eat their own poop in order to gain extra access to nutrients or to microbes that help digest those nutrients.
Thanks also to our Patreon patrons and our YouTube sponsors.
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To learn more, 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.
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Credits (and Twitter handles):
Script Writer: David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg)
Script Editor: Emily Elert (@eelert)
Video Illustrator: Ever Salazar (@eversalazar)
Video Director: David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg)
Video Narrator: Emily Elert (@eelert)
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder:
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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:
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: .
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:
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:
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