A research team collected fresh feces from 11 herbivore species in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The sampled animals include African elephants, Angolan giraffes, wildebeests, two zebra species and several antelopes.
Researchers used DNA extraction and sequencing to find which bacteria live in each gut sample. They tested whether related host species have similar gut communities; this idea is called phylosymbiosis.
Five species showed phylosymbiosis: red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, gemsbok, impala and springbok. These five are bovids, cow-like ruminants with complex stomachs. Other species showed little or no evidence of the pattern.
Difficult words
- feces — waste from an animal's body
- herbivore — animal that eats only or mostly plants
- sequencing — method to read the order of DNA
- phylosymbiosis — when related hosts have similar gut microbes
- bovid — a cow-like animal in a family of mammalsbovids
- ruminant — mammal with a complex multi-chamber stomachruminants
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Discussion questions
- Why might the five bovid species have similar gut bacteria?
- Have you ever seen any of these African animals? Which one?
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