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Coprophagy

An unusual source of essential carotenoids

Nature volume 416, pages 807–808 (2002)Cite this article

A yellow-faced vulture includes ungulate faeces in its diet for cosmetic purposes.

Abstract

The rare Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) stands out among the Old World vultures (Family Accipitridae) because of its brightly ornamented head1, which is coloured yellow by carotenoid pigments, and its practice of feeding on faeces. Here we show that Egyptian vultures obtain these pigments from the excrement of ungulates. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that faeces can be used as a source of carotenoids by a vertebrate.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Plasma lutein concentrations in Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Pabellón del Perú, Avda María Luisa, Seville, s/n 41013, Spain

    J. J. Negro, J. M. Grande, J. L. Tella & J. A. Donázar

  2. Food Biotechnology Department, Instituto de la Grasa, CSIC, Avda Padre García Tejero 4, Seville, 41012, Spain

    J. Garrido & D. Hornero

  3. Departamento de Biología Aplicada, Area de Ecología, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Alicante, 03312, Spain

    J. A. Sanchez-Zapata

  4. Zoo de Jerez, Taxdirt, Jerez de la Frontera, s/n 11404, Spain

    J. R. BenÍtez & M. Barcell

Authors
  1. J. J. Negro
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  2. J. M. Grande
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  3. J. L. Tella
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  4. J. Garrido
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  5. D. Hornero
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  6. J. A. Donázar
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  7. J. A. Sanchez-Zapata
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  8. J. R. BenÍtez
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  9. M. Barcell
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Correspondence to J. J. Negro.

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Negro, J., Grande, J., Tella, J. et al. An unusual source of essential carotenoids. Nature 416, 807–808 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/416807a

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