[HN Gopher] Pooping hippos create 'community guts' in African ponds
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Pooping hippos create 'community guts' in African ponds
Author : rbanffy
Score : 66 points
Date : 2021-12-10 12:56 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| [deleted]
| aaron695 wrote:
| This is dumb
|
| When giving cattle Leuceana rumen inoculum you only give it to
| 10% of the herd because the rest will share it at drinking
| locations. This was first found naturally in Hawaii in goats but
| now has been brought to other locations for cattle [1]
|
| Similarity when using camels for a different rumen inoculum for
| cattle not for sale yet it's also at drinking locations the camel
| shares it to the cattle.
|
| We know this is true in cattle, because this is done in business
| after multiple studies.
|
| Is this claiming it's fecal matter based? Ok, perhaps that's not
| dumb, I assumed it was shared from the mouth, but perhaps I've
| never thought it was fecal matter because that's icky. Fecal
| matter will get in drinking troughs.
|
| Is this what it's saying, fecal not saliva? Hippos, goats, camels
| and cows all chew their cud, so they have gut bacteria in their
| mouths.
|
| [1] https://csiropedia.csiro.au/leucaena-toxicity-solution/
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Flanders and Swan's Hippopotamus Song:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpDF3Py7r8
|
| >Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the
| blood.
| rectang wrote:
| > _If swallowed by other hippos, the bacteria may possibly aid
| digestion and disease resistance._
|
| Presumably it also aids in the spread of hippo-hosted parasites?
|
| And yet apparently that cost doesn't outweigh the benefits of
| this behavior.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Lots of behaviours of mammals seem to assist the propagation of
| parasites. For example sneezing seems to have very little
| biological need, yet is incredibly good at distribution of
| airborne pathogens.
|
| The sneeze reflex is complex, and clearly not encoded in the
| very small and simple viruses that trigger it.
|
| I have a hypothesis that many undiscovered pathogens in fact
| have a positive impact on survival rates of their host, which
| is why behaviours that deliberately spread (some) pathogens are
| so common.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| A sneeze is a like a cough in that its a mechanical way to
| expel blockage and foreign bodies from nasal mucous membranes
| that happen to be great environments for pathogens to grow.
| culi wrote:
| In general parasites that kill their hosts are failures.
| That's why every single human pandemic has come from zoonotic
| parasites. It's parasites that are not adapted to humans and
| accidentally kill them. Generally, given enough time, they
| would eventually adapt and the strains that are the least
| harmful (sometimes even most beneficial) would win out as
| their hosts would do better and allow the parasites to spread
| more
|
| This happened in South America with a cholera outbreak. In
| countries with good sanitation, strains that made their hosts
| sicker ended up dying out because people had to stay indoors
| more. So the strains that were less sever allowed people to
| go out and interact socially and therefore spread the cholera
| further.
|
| Arguably the same thing might be happening with the Omicron
| variant which early data suggests is much much milder than
| previous variants
| kadoban wrote:
| The hippo isn't the only thing involved here though, the
| parasites and bacteria are too. So it may not be strictly best
| for the hippo, it may be best for something else that is able
| to influence the hippo.
| Robotbeat wrote:
| It may mean development of pathogens that that hippo clan is
| resistant to but which rival hippo clans, or perhaps rival
| species, are not. Like "Guns, Germs, and Steel" but for hippos.
| 1cvmask wrote:
| Humans display similar outcomes in the Ganges river. But it is
| dangerous for outside tourists for sure and it seems the locals
| are immune or inoculated to all the e. coli bacili in the river.
| The humans there believe the river to be purifying the soul and
| spirit.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges
|
| https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/fatal-bacteria-like-e-...
| sjtindell wrote:
| When I visited Varanasi there were literally bodies and ashes
| being put in the river right upstream from thousands of people
| bathing, drinking, playing, and worshipping. Wild.
| xchaotic wrote:
| just don't tell Gwyneth Paltrow
| (https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/gwyneth-paltr...)
| silexia wrote:
| Fecal transplants in humans are purported to have a myriad of
| health benefits. I wonder if the clean water push may actually be
| harmful in some ways as people lose some diverse, healthy
| bacteria in our guts?
| culi wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
|
| In my native country there's a joke/saying that says that kids
| who ate their own shit as babies have good luck. So if someone
| tells you you have good luck, their making a joke about you
| being a shiteater lol.
|
| I've always wondered if this might be rooted in the large
| number of observed health benefits associated with early
| childhood exposure to diverse microbiomes
| kadoban wrote:
| As far as I know fecal transplants are only known to be
| beneficial in some cases, presumably when there is something
| seriously wrong with the recipient's gut biome. It doesn't seem
| clear to me that clean water is bad or fecal transplants are
| generally helpful.
|
| Keep in mind that lack of clean water is a _huge_ killer. The
| benefits would have to be ridiculous for it to be worth it.
| ng12 wrote:
| Some chronic gastro issues like IBS and Crohn's are virtually
| unheard of in developing countries. There's a theory that
| this because people in developed countries have
| underdeveloped immune systems from underexposure to foodborne
| bacteria/viruses.
|
| Net-net clean water is definitely more important but there's
| still some drawbacks.
| dsizzle wrote:
| I'm surprised an article on hippo poop altering the local
| environment doesn't mention the unique (and disgusting!) way that
| hippos poop: by spraying it everywhere propeller-style with their
| tails! The usual explanation for that is that it's to mark their
| territory, but I wonder if this offers a more cooperative
| explanation? (I would be skeptical of that explanation TBC.)
| Thiez wrote:
| It may be disgusting, but it makes for a great effect when
| played in reverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5SSnQBtaq4
| :-)
| hawk_ wrote:
| what's with the blurring in that video?
| junon wrote:
| To prevent it from being flagged as for mature audiences
| and potentially getting a strike on the channel. Showing
| fecal matter in high, up-close detail would mark it as a
| "V" rating (violence/disturbing)[0]:
|
| > Examples include real or dramatized medical footage, or
| depictions of disgusting or scary content in a horror or
| fantasy context.
|
| [0] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/146399
| chongli wrote:
| But this is not a horror or fantasy context, it's an
| educational context. Am I missing something?
| junon wrote:
| Youtube doesn't care about that. At least, content
| creators don't generally take that chance. There is very
| little recourse if Youtube decides your content violates
| their rules.
|
| That was from the "mild" section, too. Looking at the
| more extreme bullet point for the same rating, there's
|
| > It may also include pervasive imagery or situations
| that are disturbing or repulsive to the average viewer.
|
| Which, given that the entire video is about literal
| buttholes and feces, probably fits to some degree.
| 1cvmask wrote:
| That was so funny and clever.
| samcheng wrote:
| It's a spectacular experience if you're lucky enough to see it
| at the zoo!
| jonsen wrote:
| Out of luck if you wear glasses.
| setgree wrote:
| This comes up in the movie Okja but I didn't know it was based
| on a real thing
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