Abstract
The vegetarian diet of many herbivorous mammals is supplemented with proteins of animal origin, especially in young individuals and in breeding females, to provide key proteins necessary for both growth and breeding. Among porcupine species, only the Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) has been observed to consume carrion flesh. From June to August 2019, a pigeon carcass was placed together with corn in 7 study settlements and near 2 monitored capture-traps, in order to assess the carrion flesh feeding habits of the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata). Scavenging behaviour was recorded on four occasions. All the recorded individuals were adults and at least one was female. This demonstrates that the crested porcupine occasionally does eat flesh. Such evidence raises important questions concerning the relationship between feeding habits and the physiological needs of this herbivorous rodent.
Highlights
The vegetarian diet of many herbivorous mammals is supplemented with proteins of animal origin, especially in young individuals and in breeding females, to provide key proteins necessary for both growth and breeding
Futhermore, Roth[28] reported an 8–10 week old cape porcupine reared in captivity, that was fed on boiled ham and fried meat
Animal proteins supplement the vegetarian diet of many herbivorous mammals, especially in growing youngsters and breeding females[33]
Summary
The vegetarian diet of many herbivorous mammals is supplemented with proteins of animal origin, especially in young individuals and in breeding females, to provide key proteins necessary for both growth and breeding. All the recorded individuals were adults and at least one was female This demonstrates that the crested porcupine occasionally does eat flesh. The three species have thrived amidst anthropic activities, such as agriculture and manmade riverbanks, which provide rodents with enough food resources and burrowing habitats, r espectively[3] These rodents are infamous as pests for destroying economically important crops and damaging riverbanks by b urrowing[4,5,6]. According to W hite[33], otherwise vegetarian mammals actively looking for meat may be a far more common breeding strategy than has previously been presumed The aim of this investigation was to assess whether animal proteins supplement the vegetarian diet of the crested porcupine as previously observed in the cape porcupine
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