Learn more about quokkas over on @animalogic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj-EGNN5HwQ Animals eat their own poop in order to gain extra access to nutrients or to microbes that help digest those nutrients.

LEARN MORE

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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

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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

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REFERENCES

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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: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29664132

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: http://www.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: https://www.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: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/everyone-poops-some-animals-eat-it-why-180961020/