[Digestion] Elefant Dung?

[Joshua Bogart]

The other side of such "indigestible" diets, is slow activity like Pandas,
Koalas, sloths, ant eaters, because of the low energy value and need to
break down otherwise toxic substances, many of these species have an
otherwise lethargic physical activity,

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Duncan Martin <duncanjmartin at gmail.com>wrote:

> Peter & all
>
> Koalas are far from the only animals that thrive on a diet that we'd
> consider indigestible - think of termites and other insects that eat dry
> wood for example.
>
> However, many animals deal with such 'lean' diets not by highly-efficient
> digestion but by simply eating large volumes, which of course goes with the
> production of large amounts of dung (and good dung too, with plenty of food
> value too - for those with a taste for such delicacies!).
>
> I don't think it follows that such animals have better digestive systems
> than others, which I *think* was the implication of the introduction of
> the koala into the debate. But there might be some scientific interest -
> who knows!
>
> Duncan Martin (Dr)
> Cloughjordan Ecovillage
> Ireland
>
>
> On 19 May 2012 02:10, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Alex,
>> our Institute constructed an ARTI type biogas plant (constructed from two
>> plastic water tanks) for a college of veterinary science, in Mumbai.
>> This biogas plant has been provided with an additional tank with a stirrer,
>> in which the dung is first mixed with an appropriate quantity of water to
>> make a slurry. This slurry is then let into the biogas plant. This
>> plant accepts dung of a large variety of animals, and I am quite sure that
>> it would also work on elephant dung. Removal of fibrous residue from a
>> biogas plant is a problem, which we often face if green leaves are used as
>> feedstock. The midribs and veins have lignin in them and they are not
>> digested. This material has to be removed from the digester at regular
>> intervals by opening a drain valve specially provided for this purpose.
>> Yours
>> A.D.Karve
>>
>> On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 11:46 PM, David <david at h4c.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Alex,
>>>
>>> On 5/17/2012 8:22 PM, Alexander Eaton wrote:
>>>
>>> Any data or thoughts on this?  We are doing a really cool zoo project,
>>> and we will be testing a number of animal wastes, one being Elefant
>>> (hippo also included).
>>>
>>>
>>> Work has been done on this by researchers working at the Toronto, Denver
>>> and Portland OR zoos, among others.
>>>
>>> I know of at least three freely available papers that bear (pun
>>> intended) on the issue (as previously):
>>>
>>>  “Energy Production from Zoo Animal Wastes”, Klasson and Nghiem, 2003
>>> (poster here <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/eere/PDFs/Zoodoopost.pdf>, paper
>>> here <http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/123/1238059703.pdf>)
>>>
>>> "Biogas from elephant dung: a means of mitigating human-elephant
>>> conflict", Wijeyamohan (here<http://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/Gajah/22-62-Wijeyamohan.pdf>
>>> )
>>>
>>> "Biogas as Renewable Energy from Organic Wastes", Karki et al (here<http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C17/E6-58-09-10.pdf>
>>> )
>>>
>>>
>>> And another, hard to find on-line:
>>>
>>>  "Biogas Production from Elephant Dung at the National Elephant
>>> Institute Project", by The National Elephant Institute (Thailand)
>>>
>>>
>>> d.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> David William House
>>> "The Complete Biogas Handbook" www.completebiogas.com
>>> *Vahid Biogas*, an alternative energy consultancy www.vahidbiogas.com
>>>
>>> "Make no search for water.       But find thirst,
>>> And water from the very ground will burst."
>>> (Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in *Delight of Hearts*, p. 77)
>>>
>>> http://bahai.us/
>>>
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>>>
>>> for more information about digestion, see
>>> Beginner's Guide to Biogas
>>> http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/
>>> and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ***
>> Dr. A.D. Karve
>> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>> for more information about digestion, see
>> Beginner's Guide to Biogas
>> http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/
>> and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digestion mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
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>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/digestion_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more information about digestion, see
> Beginner's Guide to Biogas
> http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/
> and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
>
>
>


-- 

Skype: Joshua.bogart
Emial: Joshua.bogart at gmail.com
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