A new method of determining diets of rodents

Diets of rodents often have been studied by analysis of feces or stomach co ntents. Analysis of feces is highly inaccurate because of differential dige stion, and the analysis of stomach contents requires the sacrifice of large numbers of individuals and cannot be used for some species because of cons ervation considerations. We developed a new method for determining diets of rodents by stomach pumping that is as accurate as previously used analysis of stomach contents. Animals are not sacrificed, so it is possible to coll ect more than one sample from each individual and study a population of rod ents for a long time without harming it. It also allows studies that would otherwise be legally or morally impossible.