Methane production by two non-ruminant foregut-fermenting herbivores: The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) and the pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis)

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Volume 191, January 2016, Pages 107–114

• Catharina Vendl^a,
• Samuel Frei^a,
• Marie Theres Dittmann^{a, b},
• Samuel Furrer^c,
• Sylvia Ortmann^d,
• Arne Lawrenz^e,
• Bastian Lange^f,
• Adam Munn^g,
• Michael Kreuzer^b,
• Marcus Clauss^{a, ,}

 

doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2015.09.021

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Abstract

Methane (CH₄) production varies between herbivore species, but reasons for this variation remain to be elucidated. Here, we report open-circuit chamber respiration measurements of CH₄ production in four specimens each of two non-ruminant mammalian herbivores with a complex forestomach but largely differing in body size, the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu, mean body mass 17 kg) and the pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis, 229 kg) fed lucerne-based diets. In addition, food intake, digestibility and mean retention times were measured in the same experiments. CH₄ production averaged 8 and 72 L/d, 18 and 19 L/kg dry matter intake, and 4.0 and 4.2% of gross energy intake for the two species, respectively. When compared with previously reported data on CH₄ production in other non-ruminant and ruminant foregut-fermenting as well as hindgut-fermenting species, it is evident that neither the question whether a species is a foregut fermenter or not, or whether it ruminates or not, is of the relevance previously suggested to explain variation in CH₄ production between species. Rather, differences in CH₄ production between species on similar diets appear related to species-specific differences in food intake and digesta retention kinetics.

Abbreviations

• aD, apparent digestibility;
• ADF, acid detergent fibre;
• ADL, acid detergent lignin;
• CH₄, methane;
• CO₂, carbon dioxide;
• CF, crude fibre;
• CP, crude protein;
• DEI, digestible energy intake;
• DM, dry matter;
• DMI, dry matter intake;
• EE, ether extract (‘crude fat’);
• dNDFi, digestible neutral detergent fibre intake;
• GE, gross energy;
• GEI, gross energy intake;
• GLM, general linear model;
• MEI, metabolisable energy intake;
• MR, metabolic rate;
• MRT, mean retention time;
• NDF, neutral detergent fibre;
• O₂, oxygen;
• rDMI, relative dry matter intake;
• rMR, relative metabolic rate;
• RMR, resting metabolic rate;
• rRMR, relative resting metabolic rate

Keywords

• Methane;
• Rumination;
• Artiodactyla;
• Tayassuidae;
• Hippopotamidae;
• Methanogen;
• Mean retention time

Corresponding author.

Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.