Nitrogen requirements of the didelphid marsupial Caluromys philander |
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Authors: | W J Foley P Charles-Dominique D Julien-Laferriere |
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Institution: | (1) URA 1183/CNRS, Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 91800 Brunoy, France, FR |
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Abstract: | The use of fruit-based diets by a small arboreal marsupial, the woolly opossum (Caluromys philander) was studied to elucidate the mechanisms used to compensate for a low dietary protein concentration. The passage of a liquid
phase digesta marker (Cr-EDTA) through the gut was significantly faster when animals were fed a diet containing 0.45% N compared
to that measured on a diet containing 0.90% N. The size of the gut of the two groups was similar except that the caecum of
animals fed 0.45% N was significantly larger than in those animals fed 0.90% N. Animals fed a diet of 0.45% N ate significantly
more food than those fed higher levels of nitrogen but there was no significant difference in the dry matter digestibility
of the diet. The maintenance nitrogen requirement of the animals was 176 mg dietary N or 146 mg truly digestible nitrogen
per kg metabolic body mass, with low losses of non-dietary faecal nitrogen being notable. There was no significant difference
between diets in any measured parameter of urea metabolism and all animals recycled between 60% and 80% of the endogenously
synthesised urea.
Accepted: 22 March 2000 |
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Keywords: | AbbreviationsNDFN non-dietary faecal nitrogen SCFA short chain fatty acids |
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