On Mar 26, 11:44 pm, Simon wrote:
> Why do dogs like to eat human turds?
>
> Once, when I was about seven, I was out walking my dog when I suddenly
> needed to lay a brick, so I nipped into a secluded school doorway and
> dropped a huge, long curly one. I was then amazed to see that my dog
> proceeded to wolf it down and then licked his chops!
>
> So, why do dogs like to eat human shit?
Food intakes, energy expenditures and faecal excretions of men on a
polar expedition
BY J. P. MASTERTON AND H. E. LEWIS"
British North Greenland Expedition, Division of Human Physiology,
Medical Research Council, Hampstead, London, N. W. 3
AND ELSIE M. WIDDOWSON
Medical Research Council Department of Experimental Medicine,
University of Cambridge
(Received 12 March 1957)
The British North Greenland Expedition (Lewis & Masterton, 1955a, b)
provided an
opportunity to study the food intake and energy expenditure of men in
a cold environment.
The expedition, consisting of twenty-five men, left London on 8 July
1952 to
spend 2 years in an unexplored area of mountains and glaciers situated
some 800 miles
from the North Pole. Their explorations included a geological and
topographical
survey involving considerable travelling, which was done by dog
sledge.
For many years it has been reported by travellers to polar regions
that husky dogs
eat human faeces (Bertelsen, 1929 ; Rosendahl, 1954). This observation
was confirmed
by us and led to the present investigations. Sledging rations
generally contain a high
proportion of fat, which it was suggested might lead to an abnormally
high excretion
of fat in the faeces, which might be a physiological reason for the
habits of the dogs.
The investigation now reported, carried out in association with the
rest of the
physiological work of the British North Greenland Expedition (Lewis &
Masterton,
1955 a, b), can be classified under five headings : (I) a record of
the dietary intake of
four men while sledging; (2) a record of these men's dietary intake on
two occasions
while living at the base hut; (3) an estimate of the energy
expenditure of the four
men while sledging and living at base; (4) an analysis of the nitrogen
and fat in the
faeces of two of the men while sledging; (5) an estimate of the
calorie intake of the
dogs, and the contribution of human faeces to it.
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FBJN%2FBJN11_04%2FS0007114557000562a.pdf&code=51166385c22d60ea559d97c60a9e146d
Now go away.
WM |