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SYDNEY, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) – An Australian researcher has decided that Rwanda's gorillas are venturing out of their jungle protected habitat to attack nearby Australian eucalyptus plantations.
Cyril Grueter of the University of Western Australia told Xinhua on Wednesday that eucalyptus bark rich in sodium had a salty treatment that, despite the risks, seems determined to continue.
Grueter, a primate specialist who has spent two years monitoring gorillas in Rwanda, said that if getting closer to our evolutionary cousins was unforgettable, the research was demanding.
"In fact, we had to work very hard in the forest, we had to collect data according to a very strict protocol – we were interested in the amount of food consumed daily by the gorillas," said Grueter.
"So, what we did was basically we watched them and we counted the number of food items they put in their mouths."
By monitoring the food intake of the gorillas, Grueter and his colleagues observed primates looking for eucalyptus plantations, outside the protection of their home in Virunga National Park, exposing them to a risk increased contact with humans.
"They go after the eucalyptus, they remove the bark and they eat it – and they seem to like it a lot," Grueter said.
"So we brought samples to the lab, we performed nutritional analyzes and we found that eucalyptus bark is extremely rich in sodium – about 100 times richer than what we have normally found in the park. "
Gorillas seem to look for salty bark in addition to their dietary needs, in the same way that humans like high-sodium foods such as potato chips or soy sauce.
"I do not think that they really need eucalyptus, it's just that now it's there and it's attractive so they go after," Grueter said. .
Similarly, "we would be perfectly fine without the salty potato chips, no, but since it is there and you can buy it in every local grocery store, we are going – same thing with the gorillas."
And it is not the primates alone in the animal kingdom who go to the extreme to satisfy the desires of salt.
"If you look at other animals, elephants sometimes sink into caves to find saline and each animal has a different strategy to make sure it contains enough sodium." Gorillas now have this unusual strategy.
Grueter hopes that the results of the study will advance the discussion on how to adapt land use by local people to effectively combat conflicts with salt-hungry gorillas.
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