Why Do Some Animals Eat Their Feces?

When it comes to eating feces, the first animal that comes to mind is dogs. They are in a way we cannot understand They start to smell and eat every piece of feces they see on the street. They are quite inclined.

Well, some animals Why are they so willing to eat their own and some other living things’ feces?

Although it may seem strange to us, for many animals feces is a regular part of their menu.

For example, herbivores consume almost all nutrients They leave 1/3 of it in their feces. Some flies and insects also survive on the nutrients left over from the feces of other animals.

Additionally, people have built toilets on top of pigstys for thousands of years. Because these animals They obtain almost all of their nutrients from human feces.

Feces eating behavior is also quite common in dogs.

Some dogs begin to eat feces as soon as they see them, while others look for fresh feces that contain the enzymes they are deficient in. With their sharp noses, they are always searching for something.

For example, when gorillas eat the hard seeds of the Dialium tree, their intestinal bacteria soften the hard seeds, but they cannot separate most of the nutrients and take them into the body. That being the case, these animals To get the nutritious nutrients in the seeds They eat their feces frequently.

This fascination with feces is not limited to just these animals.

Rabbits eat the same type of food as cows. But while cows have a long digestive system that gives microbes time to break down plant cells, rabbits have much shorter intestines. For this reason rabbits They get the nutrients they cannot get in sufficient amounts by eating their feces.

There is a similar situation in koalas. These animals feed on both poisonous and fibrous foods, but the young fail to distinguish between them. For this reason, only for a few weeks after birth They eat their mother’s and their own feces.

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