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Genetic Linkage

DNA in Strange Places: Hippo Poop, Zoo Air, and Cave Dirt

Many years ago, a dear friend took me to the Detroit zoo to see the Hippoquarium. Much to my delight, the resident hippo positioned her rear to the glass of the enclosure and let loose, her whirring tail distributing the intestinal contents like blowing on an open milkweed pod.

 

A few years later I saw the same demonstration at the Tampa zoo, a hippo's whirligig-of-a-tail in action.

 

Hippo Microbiomes

 

Recently, researchers from the US and Kenya described in Scientific Reports their investigation of the ejection of hippo feces into the pools of the Serengeti's Mara River. A more natural environs than a zoo, the river is home to more than 4,000 hippos wallowing in some 170 hippo pools in the Kenyan part of the territory.

 

To continue reading go to my blog DNA Science at Public Library of Science.

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