![]() "One of the microbial families we found at significant levels in reproductively successful adults was Rikenellaceae," Burnham says. The researchers also found that each group of adults was playing host to microbial species that have previously been associated with reproductive health. The researchers found that reproductively successful females had less diversity in the types of microbial species present in their gut microbiome, when compared to the microbiome of reproductively unsuccessful females. And it's important here because it casts the differences we found between reproductively successful adults and reproductively unsuccessful females in stark relief." This sort of microbiome 'succession' is fairly common in many animal species. This likely reflects, among other things, changes in the diet and behavior of the animals. "In other words, microbial communities in the gut microbiome change predictably as animals age from juveniles to subadults to adults. "We found differences between rhinos in each age group," says Erin McKenney, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of applied ecology at NC State. The researchers extracted and sequenced DNA from the fecal samples, which allowed them to identify the diversity and abundance of bacteria in the gut of the study animals. "We wanted to have a robust sample size that would allow us to assess the gut microbiome of females in this species while accounting for age, the time of year and reproductive status," Burnham says. The study population consisted of two juveniles two "subadults" who are no longer nursing but are not yet of reproductive age two adults who have reproduced successfully and two adults who have not reproduced successfully.Īlso Read | EU Asks Big Tech to Label AI-generated Content. ![]() To that end, the researchers collected multiple fecal samples from eight female southern white rhinoceroses over a six-month period. ![]()
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