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Chemistry, mineralogy and microbiology of termite mound soil eaten by the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Western Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1999

William C. Mahaney
Affiliation:
Geomorphology and Pedology Laboratory, Atkinson College, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3
Jessica Zippin
Affiliation:
Geomorphology and Pedology Laboratory, Atkinson College, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3
Michael W. Milner
Affiliation:
Geomorphology and Pedology Laboratory, Atkinson College, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3
Kandiah Sanmugadas
Affiliation:
Geomorphology and Pedology Laboratory, Atkinson College, York University, 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3
R. G. V. Hancock
Affiliation:
SLOWPOKE Reactor Facility, Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Susan Aufreiter
Affiliation:
SLOWPOKE Reactor Facility, Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sean Campbell
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.
Michael A. Huffman
Affiliation:
Primate Research Institute, Section of Ecology, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan
Michael Wink
Affiliation:
Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 364, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
David Malloch
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A4, Canada
Volli Kalm
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia

Abstract

Subsamples of termite mound soil used by chimpanzees for geophagy, and topsoil never ingested by them, from the forest floor in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, were analysed to determine the possible stimulus or stimuli for geophagy. The ingested samples have a dominant clay texture equivalent to a claystone, whereas the control samples are predominantly sandy clay loam or sandy loam, which indicates that particle size plays a significant role in soil selection for this behaviour. One potential function of the clays is to bind and adsorb toxins. Although both termite mound and control samples have similar alkaloid-binding capacities, they are in every case very high, with the majority of the samples being above 80%. The clay size material (<2 μm) contains metahalloysite and halloysite, the latter a hydrated aluminosilicate (Al2Si2O4·nH2O), present in the majority of both the termite mound soil and control soil samples.Metahalloysite, one of the principal ingredients found in the pharmaceutical Kaopectate™, is used to treat minor gastric ailments in humans. The soils commonly ingested could also function as antacids, as over half had pH values between 7.2 and 8.6. The mean concentrations of the majority of elements measured were greater in the termite mound soils than in the control soils. The termite mound soils had more filamentous bacteria, whereas the control soils contained greater numbers of unicellular bacteria and fungi.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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