[Digestion] Elefant Dung?

[Duncan Martin]

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/
>
>
>
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