Interspecific coprophagia by wild red foxes:<scp>DNA</scp>metabarcoding reveals a potentially widespread form of commensalism among animals

Waggershauser, Cristian N.; Taberlet, Pierre; Coissac, Éric; Kortland, Kenny; Hambly, Catherine; Lambin, Xavier

doi:10.1002/ece3.9029

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…[39,191,192]) or simply because they are avoiding dingoes [193]. As well as potentially representing scavenging, traces of predator hair could indicate coprophagy for nutritional gain, as has been reported for foxes [194,195] and modern dogs [196,197].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinctive diets of eutherian predators in Australia

et al. 2022

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Introduction of the domestic cat and red fox has devastated Australian native fauna. We synthesized Australian diet analyses to identify traits of prey species in cat, fox and dingo diets, which prey were more frequent or distinctive to the diet of each predator, and quantified dietary overlap. Nearly half (45%) of all Australian terrestrial mammal, bird and reptile species occurred in the diets of one or more predators. Cat and dingo diets overlapped least (0.64 ± 0.27, n = 24 location/time points) and cat diet changed little over 55 years of study. Cats were more likely to have eaten birds, reptiles and small mammals than foxes or dingoes. Dingo diet remained constant over 53 years and constituted the largest mammal, bird and reptile prey species, including more macropods/potoroids, wombats, monotremes and bandicoots/bilbies than cats or foxes. Fox diet had greater overlap with both cats (0.79 ± 0.20, n = 37) and dingoes (0.73 ± 0.21, n = 42), fewer distinctive items (plant material, possums/gliders) and significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity over 69 years, suggesting the opportunity for prey switching (especially of mammal prey) to mitigate competition. Our study reinforced concerns about mesopredator impacts upon scarce/threatened species and the need to control foxes and cats for fauna conservation. However, extensive dietary overlap and opportunism, as well as low incidence of mesopredators in dingo diets, precluded resolution of the debate about possible dingo suppression of foxes and cats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinctive diets of eutherian predators in Australia

et al. 2022

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“…The examination of red fox scats in Scotland found a curiously high percentage of domestic dog (C. l. familiaris) DNA. Researchers linked this finding to coprophagia, which may help to sustain red fox populations when their natural prey base fluctuates (Waggershauser et al, 2022). Coyotes (C. latrans) in New York City were expected to have human food in their diet, but DNA metabarcoding showed that domestic chicken (Gallus gallus), presumably intended for human consumption, comprised nearly half of dietary counts (Henger et al, 2022).…”

Section: Application Of Dna Metabarcoding For Species In Other Parts ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Decoding the DNA of scat and the application of genetic methodologies to understanding carnivore diet

Hacker

2023

SciRevs.Biology

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Carnivore species are vital to ecosystem function and maintenance. One key component to understanding carnivore ecology and the most effective means of management is knowledge of dietary resource use. Traditional methods used to study carnivore diet, such as microhistology, have several technical and logistical shortcomings. These have hindered the quality and quantity of data that shape understanding of how carnivores exploit prey. Advances in genetic methodologies and their application to wildlife biology has transformed the manner in which information about species can be gained. DNA metabarcoding is one such example. With this approach, genetic sequences present in scat can be determined via next-generation sequencing and matched to reference databases, revealing the carnivore that deposited the scat and the prey it consumed. DNA metabarcoding has the ability to overcome many of the previous challenges associated with dietary analysis and works to advance and inform current knowledge surrounding carnivore ecology, predatorprey relationships, conflicts between carnivores and humans, and potential adaptability to large-scale landscape shifts. Its use has provided novel insights on numerous carnivore species to help inform research priorities and wildlife policies, including those living in unique fragile environments such as the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China. The continued development and increased capacity of molecular dietary analysis via DNA metabarcoding has the promise to grossly improve carnivore conservation management strategies on a global scale.

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“…Coprophagy is well‐known in leporids (Hirakawa, 2001 ), but the practice has also been observed in a wide range of other organisms, from insects (Körner et al, 2016 ), fish (Rempel et al, 2022 ), rodents (Kenagy & Hoyt, 1979 ), and canids (Waggershauser et al, 2022 ), to large herbivores such as African elephant (Leggett, 2004 ), and non‐human primates (Krief et al, 2004 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coprophagy in moose: A first observation

Spitzer

Åström

Eriksson

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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The term 'coprophagy' refers to the ingestion of feces from various sources such as an animal's own (autocoprophagy), those of conspecifics (allocoprophagy), or feces deposited by different species (interspecific coprophagy) (Soave & Brand, 1991).Coprophagy is well-known in leporids (Hirakawa, 2001), but the practice has also been observed in a wide range of other organisms, from insects (Körner et al., 2016), fish (Rempel et al., 2022), rodents (Kenagy & Hoyt, 1979), and canids (Waggershauser et al., 2022, to large herbivores such as African elephant (Leggett, 2004), and nonhuman primates (Krief et al., 2004).In deer (Cervidae), coprophagy has only been reported as interspecific coprophagy and for three species: sika deer Cervus nippon yakushimae eating the feces of Japanese macaques (Nishikawa & Mochida, 2010), Indian Muntjac Muntiacus vaginalis feeding on Asian elephant dung (Ranade & Prakash, 2015), and reindeer Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus ingesting goose droppings (van der Wal & Loonen, 1998). This suggests that the behavior may indeed be rare or, alternatively, difficult to detect as this requires close direct observation of foraging behavior. Here, we report an observation of allocoprophagy in moose Alces alces based on video footage that was captured with a camera collar on a wild adult moose cow in Norway (Figure 1). To the best of our knowledge,

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Interspecific coprophagia by wild red foxes:DNAmetabarcoding reveals a potentially widespread form of commensalism among animals

Cited by 9 publications

References 94 publications

Distinctive diets of eutherian predators in Australia

Distinctive diets of eutherian predators in Australia

Decoding the DNA of scat and the application of genetic methodologies to understanding carnivore diet

Coprophagy in moose: A first observation

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