Mineral acquisition from clay by Budongo Forest chimpanzees

Vernon Reynolds; Andrew W. Lloyd; Christopher J. English; Peter Lyons; Howard Dodd; Catherine Hobaiter; Nicholas Newton-Fisher; Caroline Mullins; Noemie Lamon; Anne Marijke Schel; Brittany Fallon

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134075

Mineral acquisition from clay by Budongo Forest chimpanzees

Vernon Reynolds^*, Andrew W. Lloyd, Christopher J. English, Peter Lyons, Howard Dodd, Catherine Hobaiter, Nicholas Newton-Fisher, Caroline Mullins, Noemie Lamon, Anne Marijke Schel, Brittany Fallon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Chimpanzees of the Sonso community, Budongo Forest, Uganda were observed eating clay and drinking clay-water from waterholes. We show that clay, clay-rich water, and clay obtained with leaf sponges, provide a range of minerals in different concentrations. The presence of aluminium in the clay consumed indicates that it takes the form of kaolinite. We discuss the contribution of clay geophagy to the mineral intake of the Sonso chimpanzees and show that clay eaten using leaf sponges is particularly rich in minerals. We show that termite mound soil, also regularly consumed, is rich in minerals. We discuss the frequency of clay and termite soil geophagy in the context of the disappearance from Budongo Forest of a formerly rich source of minerals, the decaying pith of Raphia farinifera palms.

Original language	English
Article number	0134075
Number of pages	14
Journal	PLoS One
Volume	10
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134075
Publication status	Published - 28 Jul 2015

Keywords

Wild chimpanzees
Soil consumption
Kibale forest
Uganda
Geophagy
Colobus
Sodium
Diet

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Hobaiter_2015_PLOSone_Mineral_CC
© 2015 Reynolds et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
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@article{3781e4899001444d8582a73c86405a57,

title = "Mineral acquisition from clay by Budongo Forest chimpanzees",

abstract = "Chimpanzees of the Sonso community, Budongo Forest, Uganda were observed eating clay and drinking clay-water from waterholes. We show that clay, clay-rich water, and clay obtained with leaf sponges, provide a range of minerals in different concentrations. The presence of aluminium in the clay consumed indicates that it takes the form of kaolinite. We discuss the contribution of clay geophagy to the mineral intake of the Sonso chimpanzees and show that clay eaten using leaf sponges is particularly rich in minerals. We show that termite mound soil, also regularly consumed, is rich in minerals. We discuss the frequency of clay and termite soil geophagy in the context of the disappearance from Budongo Forest of a formerly rich source of minerals, the decaying pith of Raphia farinifera palms.",

keywords = "Wild chimpanzees, Soil consumption, Kibale forest, Uganda, Geophagy, Colobus, Sodium, Diet",

author = "Vernon Reynolds and Lloyd, {Andrew W.} and English, {Christopher J.} and Peter Lyons and Howard Dodd and Catherine Hobaiter and Nicholas Newton-Fisher and Caroline Mullins and Noemie Lamon and Schel, {Anne Marijke} and Brittany Fallon",

note = "Date of Acceptance: 06/07/2015",

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doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0134075",

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T1 - Mineral acquisition from clay by Budongo Forest chimpanzees

AU - Reynolds, Vernon

AU - Lloyd, Andrew W.

AU - English, Christopher J.

AU - Lyons, Peter

AU - Dodd, Howard

AU - Hobaiter, Catherine

AU - Newton-Fisher, Nicholas

AU - Mullins, Caroline

AU - Lamon, Noemie

AU - Schel, Anne Marijke

AU - Fallon, Brittany

N1 - Date of Acceptance: 06/07/2015

PY - 2015/7/28

Y1 - 2015/7/28

N2 - Chimpanzees of the Sonso community, Budongo Forest, Uganda were observed eating clay and drinking clay-water from waterholes. We show that clay, clay-rich water, and clay obtained with leaf sponges, provide a range of minerals in different concentrations. The presence of aluminium in the clay consumed indicates that it takes the form of kaolinite. We discuss the contribution of clay geophagy to the mineral intake of the Sonso chimpanzees and show that clay eaten using leaf sponges is particularly rich in minerals. We show that termite mound soil, also regularly consumed, is rich in minerals. We discuss the frequency of clay and termite soil geophagy in the context of the disappearance from Budongo Forest of a formerly rich source of minerals, the decaying pith of Raphia farinifera palms.

AB - Chimpanzees of the Sonso community, Budongo Forest, Uganda were observed eating clay and drinking clay-water from waterholes. We show that clay, clay-rich water, and clay obtained with leaf sponges, provide a range of minerals in different concentrations. The presence of aluminium in the clay consumed indicates that it takes the form of kaolinite. We discuss the contribution of clay geophagy to the mineral intake of the Sonso chimpanzees and show that clay eaten using leaf sponges is particularly rich in minerals. We show that termite mound soil, also regularly consumed, is rich in minerals. We discuss the frequency of clay and termite soil geophagy in the context of the disappearance from Budongo Forest of a formerly rich source of minerals, the decaying pith of Raphia farinifera palms.

KW - Wild chimpanzees

KW - Soil consumption

KW - Kibale forest

KW - Uganda

KW - Geophagy

KW - Colobus

KW - Sodium

KW - Diet

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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0134075

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0134075

M3 - Article

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 10

JO - PLoS One

JF - PLoS One

IS - 7

M1 - 0134075

ER -

Mineral acquisition from clay by Budongo Forest chimpanzees

Abstract

Keywords

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