Sakamaki Tetsuya
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin 41, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan.
Primates. 2010 Jan;51(1):87-90. doi: 10.1007/s10329-009-0167-9. Epub 2009 Oct 31.
Four cases of coprophagy and two cases of fecal inspection were identified during the 1142 h of observing wild bonobos at Wamba in the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At least 5 females in the study group practiced coprophagy and/or fecal inspection. According to our daily behavioral observations, boredom and stress, insufficient roughage, and the search for essential nutrients could not explain the coprophagy. Several episodes observed in this study indicated that bonobos might have sought and ingested certain valuable food items, such as hard Dialium seeds, in feces during relatively lean seasons. Although coprophagy occurred only rarely among wild bonobos, this practice appeared to represent a possibly adaptive feeding strategy during periods of food scarcity rather than a behavioral abnormality.
在刚果民主共和国洛科学保护区的万巴对野生倭黑猩猩进行的1142小时观察期间，发现了4例食粪行为和2例粪便检查行为。研究组中至少有5只雌性倭黑猩猩有食粪和/或粪便检查行为。根据我们的日常行为观察，无聊、压力、粗饲料不足以及对必需营养素的寻找都无法解释食粪行为。本研究中观察到的几个事例表明，在相对食物匮乏的季节里，倭黑猩猩可能会在粪便中寻找并摄取某些有价值的食物，比如坚硬的猴面包树种子。虽然食粪行为在野生倭黑猩猩中很少发生，但这种行为似乎代表了在食物短缺时期一种可能的适应性觅食策略，而非行为异常。
