Chemistry, mineralogy and microbiology of termite mound soil eaten by the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Western Tanzania

Subsamples of termite mound soil used by chimpanzees for geophagy, and topsoil never ingested by them, from the forest floor in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, were analysed to determine the possible stimulus or stimuli for geophagy. The ingested samples have a dominant clay texture eq...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of tropical ecology 1999-09, Vol.15 (5), p.565-588
Main Authors: Mahaney, William C., Zippin, Jessica, Milner, Michael W., Sanmugadas, Kandiah, Hancock, R. G. V., Aufreiter, Susan, Campbell, Sean, Huffman, Michael A., Wink, Michael, Malloch, David, Kalm, Volli
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal ethology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Clay loam soils
Clay soils
Forest soils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
geophagy
Mammalia
Mountain soils
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Radiocarbon
soil ingestion
Soil insects
Soil microbiology
Soil mineralogy
Soil samples
Synecology
Tanzania
termite mound soil
Termite mounds
Terrestrial ecosystems
toxin adsorption
Vertebrata
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Summary:Subsamples of termite mound soil used by chimpanzees for geophagy, and topsoil never ingested by them, from the forest floor in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, were analysed to determine the possible stimulus or stimuli for geophagy. The ingested samples have a dominant clay texture equivalent to a claystone, whereas the control samples are predominantly sandy clay loam or sandy loam, which indicates that particle size plays a significant role in soil selection for this behaviour. One potential function of the clays is to bind and adsorb toxins. Although both termite mound and control samples have similar alkaloid-binding capacities, they are in every case very high, with the majority of the samples being above 80%. The clay size material (
ISSN:0266-4674
1469-7831
DOI:10.1017/s0266467499001029