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Most people are aware that eating too much salt is bad for your health. And this is especially true for mountain gorillas in Central Africa who sometimes risk their lives to find salty food, according to a study published in the journal. Biotropica.
A team from the University of Western Australia (UWA) examined the mountain gorillas of the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda to highlight the mystery of their lack of the relative safety of their natural habitat, a national park refuge. on the outside.
Researchers have long observed these gorillas leaving the park's boundaries to eat the bark of eucalyptus, a non-native tree that has been widely planted in areas outside their home. These incursions increase the risk of conflict with humans.
Gorillas also look for other types of plants that grow high in the mountains. In fact, gorillas were seen climbing high altitudes over volcanoes to find these plants, exposing them to the risk of hypothermia.
According to the newspaper, the reason for this risky behavior is to satisfy the need for salt or sodium in their diet. Sodium is an essential micronutrient for various physiological processes such as muscle and nerve function and the maintenance of fluid levels in various parts of the body. Sodium deficiency can affect bone mineralization, growth and reproduction.
Cyril Grueter, lead author of the UWA School of Human Sciences and Center for Evolutionary Biology, said, "A sodium deficiency can trigger a specific hunger for animals. declaration.
Herbivorous mammals in forest habitats have ways to address sodium deficiency, including natural licking, consumption of soil and soil-like substances, and consumption of high-sodium plants.
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Western lowland gorillas and other Central African herbivores, for example, are attracted to swamp forest clearings where they can easily consume such high sodium plants. But the mountain gorillas of this region feed mainly on stems and leaves of plants and ground vines, high in protein but low in sodium, which means they have to find salt elsewhere.
For their study, researchers measured the sodium content of various plants, including the bark of eucalyptus – the food most commonly eaten by gorillas outside the park – and the four most consumed foods. in the reserve.
They found that the eucalyptus bark contained the most sodium among the sampled plants, while the high altitude species were also rich in micronutrients. Meanwhile, the park's gorilla staple foods were relatively low in sodium, which is why they took such risks to find plants off the reserve. In fact, eucalyptus bark contained more than one hundred times more sodium than most staple foods.
"Gorillas get up to two-thirds of their sodium when they consume eucalyptus," said Grueter.
Mountain gorillas also go to other extremes to get their salt, consuming soils high in hardened sodium – which they sometimes have to compete with – and ingesting rotting wood, for example.
The team hopes that the latest findings will help conservationists find solutions to adapt land use by local people to mitigate conflicts with salt-hungry gorillas.
"Conservation practitioners and researchers are increasingly interested in feeding mountain gorillas to crops, as this could pose a risk to the safety of gorillas and populations and result in economic losses for gorillas. local communities living near the park. ", Write the authors in the study. "The risk of disease transmission is also a serious problem when gorillas are close to humans and their animals."
The authors of the study did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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