More 60-Second Science What does an 800-pound gorilla eat? If
you said: “anything it wants,” you’re not thinking like a
scientist. A scientist would say, “Let me analyze the isotopic
composition of its excreta and I’ll get back to you.” Because a
new study shows that the ratio of carbon isotopes found in
mountain gorilla feces reveals how much fruit the apes have
consumed. The scoop’s in the latest issue of the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences. [Scott A. Blumenthal et al.,
Detecting intraannual dietary variability in wild mountain
gorillas by stable isotope analysis of feces] Knowing what
animals nosh on in the wild and how that diet fluctuates can
offer a key to their health and the overall health of the
species. But not all beasties like to dine al fresco, at least
not where scientists can watch. So researchers decided to reach
for the scat. As a test case they focused on four mountain
gorillas in a park in Uganda, because they could actually see
what these apes ingested. Different plants hav