BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Microbiomes
Sec. Nutrition, Metabolism and the Microbiome
This article is part of the Research TopicUnravelling the Wildlife Gut Microbiome: The Crucial Role of Gut Microbiomes in Wildlife Conservation StrategiesView all 19 articles
From Leaves to Microbes: How Diet and Season Shape the fecal microbiome of captive Coquerel´s Sifakas (Propithecus coquereli)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany
- 2Tierpark Berlin - Friedrichsfelde GmbH, Berlin, Germany
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The community of microorganisms occurring in the animal gut, known as the gut microbiota, is closely connected to host health. It is essential for metabolic processes, digestion and defense against pathogens. Knowledge about the composition of an intact gut microbiota, along with its natural fluctuations and diversity is a crucial aspect of proper husbandry and breeding of animals in human care. In this study we analyzed the fecal microbiota of the critically endangered Coquerel´s sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) with special focus on seasonal effects and the impact of dietary variations. As a tropical species, European winters may influence the microbiota diversity or composition, highlighting the importance of the assessment. 97 fecal samples of all individuals housed in European Zoos revealed high microbial diversity and variation. Some of the core taxa, being present in every sample are Lachnospiraceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Clostridiaceae and Bacillaceae. Microbial α-diversity showed no decline in winter, indicating no seasonal effect caused by dietary changes. However, results suggest compositional differences between seasons, indicated by significant differences in β-diversity. . These results confirm the importance of longitudinal studies to fill the gaps of knowledge in between the sampling intervals and to characterize the oscillations in the microbiota over the year.
Keywords: microbiota, seasonal changes, Oxford Nanopore sequencing, species conservation, nutrition, Propithecus coquereli
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schweikhard, Pauly, Dierkes and Zoelzer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jonas Schweikhard, schweikhard@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
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