Title:

Can dietary quality of free-ranging ungulates be simply determined from faecal chemistry?

Creator:

Putman, R. J. ; Hemmings, G. J.

Place of publishing:

Białowieża

Date issued/created:

1986

Description:

Feeding trials with a number of ungulate species in South Africa led Erasmus et al. (1978) to propose that linear relationships might exist between content of diet and content of dung for a number of key dietary nutrients, and that thus chemical analysis of dung might provide a simple method for determining available forage quality. These suggestions are tested, using three temperature ruminant species (fallow, sika and roe deer) and one non-ruminant (free-ranging domestic horses). Dietary content of dung in terms of a number of nutrients was related to dietary quality of ingesta (reconstructed from faecal dissection). Significant linear relationships were found amongst the deer for N, K, Ca content of diet and dung, but not for P, Mg or lignin.; a linear relationship was established in the horse only for lignin. The implications of these results for simple determination of forage quality are discussed.

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

diet ; faecal analysis ; ungulate ; jakość diety ; skład kału ; analiza kału ; dzikie kopytne

Relation:

Acta Theriologica

Volume:

31

Issue:

20

Start page:

257

End page:

270

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

10.4098/AT.arch.86-25

Source:

click here to follow the link

Language:

eng ; sum. eng. ; pol.

Rights:

Rights Reserved - Free Access

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. May be used within the limits of statutory user freedoms

Digitizing institution:

Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences

Projects co-financed by:

Programme Innovative Economy, 2010-2014, Priority Axis 2. R&D infrastructure ; European Union. European Regional Development Fund

Access:

Open