TY - JOUR AU - Blyton, Michaela D. J. AU - Soo, Rochelle M. AU - Whisson, Desley AU - Marsh, Karen J. AU - Pascoe, Jack AU - Le Pla, Mark AU - Foley, William AU - Hugenholtz, Philip AU - Moore, Ben D. PY - 2019 DA - 2019/08/21 TI - Faecal inoculations alter the gastrointestinal microbiome and allow dietary expansion in a wild specialist herbivore, the koala JO - Animal Microbiome SP - 6 VL - 1 IS - 1 AB - Differences between individuals in their gastrointestinal microbiomes can lead to variation in their ability to persist on particular diets. Koalas are dietary specialists, feeding almost exclusively on Eucalyptus foliage but many individuals will not feed on particular Eucalyptus species that are adequate food for other individuals, even when facing starvation. We undertook a faecal inoculation experiment to test whether a koala’s gastrointestinal (GI) microbiome influences their diet. Wild-caught koalas that initially fed on the preferred manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) were brought into captivity and orally inoculated with encapsulated material derived from faeces from koalas feeding on either the less preferred messmate (E. obliqua; treatment) or manna gum (control). SN - 2524-4671 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-019-0008-0 DO - 10.1186/s42523-019-0008-0 ID - Blyton2019 ER -