La Palmyre, France

Dietary transition: towards a fruit-free diet for great apes

What impact on social relationships and microbiota in great apes? Behavioural and microbiotic effects of dietary change

Project objective

As part of our "Animal Welfare Commitment" (EBEA) programme, we have developed a research project with La Palmyre Zoo on the behaviour and gut microbiota of great apes during a transition to a fruit-free diet.

Description

Fruits developed for human consumption differ in their nutritional composition from the wild fruits eaten by primates in their natural habitat. The consequences of a diet too rich in sugars and too low in fibres on the health and behaviour of captive primates vary: weight issues, diarrhoea, deficiencies, diabetes, liver or heart diseases, aggressive behaviour and food competition, as well as social anxiety.

Several studies have indicated that transitioning to a fruit-free diet has multiple beneficial effects in primates: improved stool consistency, better weight, improved coat condition, better blood glucose levels, reduced risk of diabetes, better survival of young individuals, increased time spent foraging, and reduced individual aggression, among other benefits (Britt et al. 2015 ; Dennis et al. 2015 ; Less et al. 2014; Plowman 2015).

Thus, the use of fruit-free diets has become a widespread approach in the world of zoological parks in recent years. However, its implementation remains a challenge, and few publications provide detailed protocols or extensive behavioural monitoring. Moreover, while studies are conducted on the microbiota of great apes in the wild (Gomez et al., 2015), there is no equivalent research in captivity. To our knowledge, there are also no scientific publications on dietary transition in orangutans, who are among the great apes studied for this project.

During this project, several factors were monitored: the weighing of rations and leftovers, stool condition, coat condition, dietary preferences, as well as feeding and social behaviours.

These data were collected by the Akongo team, using the Akongo Welfare Manager app and the Cybertracker app, in collaboration with the La Palmyre team.

Results

The study is ongoing – results will be shared soon!

Animal welfare commitment

The approach taken at La Palmyre Zoo is part of both a proactive strategy to anticipate potential health issues related to a diet too rich in fruits and a broader initiative to change practices based on current knowledge of physiological and behavioural needs in primates.

This same approach could later be applied to other great ape species and in other zoos.

Bibliographic references

Britt, S., Cowlard, K., Baker, K., & Plowman, A. (2015). Aggression and self-directed behaviour of captive lemurs (Lemur catta, Varecia variegata, V. rubra and Eulemur coronatus) is reduced by feeding fruit-free diets. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 3(2), 52-58. https://doi.org/10.19227/jzar.v3i2.119

Dennis, P. M., Raghanti, M. A., Meindl, R. S., Less, E., Henthorn, E., Devlin, W., Murray, S., Meehan, T., Kutinsky, I., & Murphy, H. (2019). Cardiac disease is linked to adiposity in male gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). PLoS One, 14(6), e0218763. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218763

Gomez, A., Petrzelkova, K., Yeoman, C. J., Vlckova, K., Mrázek, J., Koppova, I., Carbonero, F., Ulanov, A., Modry, D., Todd, A., Torralba, M., Nelson, K.E., Gaskins, H.R., Wilson, B., Stumpf, R.M., White, B.A. & Leigh, S. R. (2015). Gut microbiome composition and metabolomic profiles of wild western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) reflect host ecology. Molecular ecology, 24(10), 2551-2565. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13181

Less, E.H., Lukas, K.E., Bergl, R., Ball, R., Kuhar, C.W., Lavin, S.R., Raghanti, M.A., Wensvoort, J., Willis, M.A. & Dennis, P.M. (2014). Implementing a low‐starch biscuit‐free diet in zoo gorillas: the impact on health. Zoo biology, 33(1), 74-80. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21115

Plowman, A. (2015). Fruit-free diets for primates. In Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition, AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, Portland, OR.