Coefficients of digestibility and nutritional values of geophytes and tubers eaten by southern African mole‐rats (Rodentia: Bathyergidae)

Abstract

Subterranean rodents have high energy requirements when they are excavating their burrows. This study investigates the energy available to, and the efficiency with which it can be extracted by, four species of bathyergid mole‐rats fed natural diets ranging from the underground storage organs of geophytes to grass roots and leaves.The digestibility coefficients of geophytes ranged from 53% for the fibrous tuber of the gemsbok cucumber to 95–7% for corms and bulbs. One species, Bathyergus suillus whose diet consists of over 80% grass, had a digestibility coefficient of 87% on an all grass diet.All species had similar coefficients of digestibility of > 90% when fed on a uniform diet of sweet potato.Bulbs and corms had a low fibre content (3–3–4%), high calorific value (15–16kJ/g) and high digestibility coefficients (95–7–96%) and on this diet the mole‐rats maintained their body mass. Food of lower digestibility tended to have a high fibre content (8–2–45%) and, with the exception of B. suillus, although the mole‐rats consumed a greater quantity of food, they lost mass. The sweet potato had a low fibre content (4–1 %) but was energetically very similar to bulbs and corms (15–5 kJ/g).Geophytes which have low fibre contents are generally small (1–20 g), whereas geophytes with high fibre contents are much larger (30–2000 g) and often occur in more arid zones.