Grading fecal consistency in an omnivorous carnivore, the brown bear: Abandoning the concept of uniform feces.
dual fecal consistency
gastrointestinal health
ursidae
Journal
Zoo biology
ISSN: 1098-2361
Titre abrégé: Zoo Biol
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8807837
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
May 2021
May 2021
Historique:
revised:
12
11
2020
received:
03
04
2020
accepted:
01
02
2021
pubmed:
13
2
2021
medline:
2
6
2021
entrez:
12
2
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Grading the fecal consistency of carnivores is a frequently used tool for monitoring gut health and overall digestion. Several fecal consistency grading systems are available for mainly felids and canids. No such system exists for the brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758). We aim at extending current fecal consistency grading systems with a scoring system for brown bears. The system was set up during a diet study with nine individuals fed a variety of diets including beef meat, rabbit, fruit, and grass-fruit-pellet mix in an incomplete crossover design. One additional individual was included opportunistically and was fed the typical zoo diet (vegetable-fruit-meat-pellet diet). All feces from the collection period were photographed, graded by "handling the feces" and visually inspected for dietary components. Based on a total of 446 feces, a six-point scale for uniform fecal consistencies was established. In 11% of all feces, two distinct consistencies could be distinguished, a feature that appears in other carnivore species as well. Hence, an additional grading system for dual consistencies was developed. The fecal consistency of brown bears is heavily dependent on the diet items processed before defecation with the general observation that the more vegetation or whole prey, the firmer the feces, and at certain proportions of the latter, the higher the chance for dual fecal consistencies to occur. The results indicate that in bears, diet may have a strong effect on fecal consistency, hampering animal health assessments without prior knowledge of the diet.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
182-191Subventions
Organisme : Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University
ID : IOP031
Informations de copyright
© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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