Studies have found that the microbial diversity in the giblets of wild bears that eat human food is reduced

"We know that the'Western' diet reduces the microbial diversity in the gut of humans, mice, and other species, which may adversely affect their health," the co-author of the study and an assistant professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University Erin McKenney (Erin McKenney) said

Sierra Gillman, the first author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Washington, said: “To understand whether the same situation exists in wild animals, it is necessary to assess the effects of human food on the gut microbiota of wild mammals.

The researchers focused their research on Michigan, where hunters are allowed to “seduce” bears by omitting large amounts of human food (such as sugary grains and candies)

To collect samples from wild bear populations, the researchers worked with guides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who led the hunters on their planned trips

Researchers processed these gut samples to determine what kind of microbes exist in each bear's microbiota, and the number of each type of microbe

The researchers also performed carbon isotope analysis on the bear’s hair to assess the long-term diet of each bear

When analyzing the data, the researchers observed two indicators of intestinal biodiversity

"Basically, Faith's phylogenetic diversity assesses how many branches the bacterial family tree has," Gilman said

In bears that ate more processed foods, both of these indicators of gut biodiversity were greatly reduced

"Essentially, we found that the more human food black bears eat and the longer they eat, the less diverse their gut microbiota," Gilman said.

"Sugar is easy to digest," McCainie said

McKennie said: "If bears start to eat more human food, the biodiversity of their intestines will be affected.

Gilman said: "Now that we have established the link between human food consumption and microbial diversity, we need to do more to determine what this means for the health of these animals-and possibly other animals

“A lot of hunters use camera traps to monitor their bait sites, and the people who work with us told us that they saw a variety of species - raccoons, fishermen, martens deer, hares eating bear bait,” Diana Laffer Di said the co-author of the paper is Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology at NMU

"It is unclear how bait will affect the microbiota or health of other wild animals that use free food

The paper entitled "Food provided by humans reduces the diversity of the gut microbiota of American black bears" was published in the Journal of Mammaology

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation of the United States 1000263298; Research Honor Society Sigma Xi, G2018100198233997
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Journal Reference :

1. Sierra J Gillman, Erin A McKenney, Diana JR Lafferty.
   Human-provisioned foods reduce gut microbiome diversity in American black bears (Ursus americanus) .
   Journal of Mammalogy , 2021; DOI: 10.
   1093/jmammal/gyab154 20103121728.
   htm (accessed January 3, 2022).