Coprophagy in the Swamp Rabbit

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Abstract
It has long been known that the domestic rabbit eats and swallows a proportion of its night droppings, these forming conspicuous pellets in the stomach. Refection, the habit of passing the food twice through the alimentary tract instead of once, is probably more widespread in the lagomorphs than generally recognized (Morat, Rec. Med. Veter. Paris 59: 635, 1881; Madsen, Nature, 143: 981, 1939; Eden, Nature, 145: 36, 1940; Southern, Nature, 145: 262,1940; and others). That this habit may provide the animal with large amounts of vitamin B produced by bacteria in the food within the large intestine is suggested by Bourliere (natural history op mammals, p. 41, 1954).

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