Geological nature of mineral licks and the reasons for geophagy among animals

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper, the reasons for geophagy (the eating of rocks by wild herbivores) in two regions of the eastern Sikhote-Alin volcanic belt are considered. The mineralogical and chemical features of the consumed rocks, as well as the geological conditions of their formation, are investigated. A comparative analysis of the mineral and chemical composition of the consumed rocks and the excrement of the animals, almost completely consisting of mineral substances, is carried out. It is established that the consumed rocks are hydrothermally altered rhyolitic tuffs located in the volcanic calderas and early Cenozoic volcano-tectonic depressions. They consist of 30-65 % from zeolites (mainly clinoptilolites) and smectites, possessing powerful sorption properties. According to the obtained data, the main reason for geophagy may be connected with the animals' urge to discard excessive and toxic concentrations of certain elements that are widespread in specific habitats and ingested with forage plants.

Mammal tooth traces in a ferruginous cave in southeastern Brazil and their relevance to cave legal protection

“…this was necessary because additional evidence of cave dwellers, such as nests, feces or carcasses (see haglund 1992), along with clay imprinting of all potential producers were not available. We also performed additional comparisons with previously published papers about mammal traces on hard substrate (Gobetz and hattin 2002, Martinelli et al 2013, Panichev et al 2017), aiming at the identifi cation of the structures described in this paper.…”

“…As a contribution to the debate and further scrutiny of the role of vertebrates to the general aspect of cave environments, we report for the first time a distinct type of mammal trace within a cave in southeastern Brazil, which was produced by small mammals using their front teeth for active erosion of the substrate. the traces, which can be related to either geophagy or tooth-sharpening behavior, have been reported in non-cave environments and limestone caves (Bednarik 1991, Martinelli et al 2013, Panichev et al 2017, but until now their occurrence within iron formation caves has never been registered.…”

Chemical Composition of Lick Soils and Functions of Soil Ingested by Common Warthogs (<i>Phacochoerus africanus</i>) in Dabena Valley Forest, Western Ethiopia

“…One-way ANOVA was used to test the differences between the chemical properties of the geophagical soils of the study sites [20]. Chi-square was used to analyze seasonal differences of ingested soil and data of descriptive statistics were presented as mean ± SE [20,25].…”

“…Common warthogs salt lick mostly in the morning and afternoon hours [20]. The greatest peaks in visits of such sites occur from December to February [6,16,25]. The peak periods visit lick site coincide with plant phenology (variable timing of plant growth and forage preferences) [17,27].…”

Time-study of moose (Alces alces L., 1758) geophagia activity in the Central Yakutia

“…Later, the use of salt licks by animals were the focus of the research of Russian scientists V.I. Bgatov (1993aBgatov ( , b, 1997Bgatov ( , 2000 and A.M. Panichev (1987aPanichev ( , b, 1990Panichev ( , 1998Panichev ( , 2017, who introduced new terms in this area and suggested new causes of geophagia.…”