this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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47
If we humans have a whole range of microbial life living on our skin, do other animals have their own similar micro fauna covering them? (pawb.social)
submitted 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) by Kolanaki@pawb.social to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

And if so, are they unique to the animals they live on or is it pretty much the same as ours?

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[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 19 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

Oh hell yes.

My favorite is the biome on the sloth. This isn't even just a microbiome, we have moths and algae. You know how sloths go to ground to crap, even though it's a lot of energy and really dangerous for the sloth? Well, there's a moth that requires the sloths; Moth eggs are laid in sloth poo. Moths hatch, fly up to roost in sloth fur, carrying sloth poo. Sloth poo provides nutrients for the algae that grows on the sloth for the moths to eat. Sloth fur has notches that hold water and the nutrients for the algae to grow.

Sloth goes back down to crap, moths lay eggs, fly up...

e: oh, and I think the sloth eats the moths for protein and can eat the algae if times get tough.

[–] ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org 2 points 2 hours ago

So just to get this straight: the sloth is it's own farm ground?

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

the sloth eats the moth

Apparently this is true? I'll be emotionally processing this one for the next week. I wasn't prepared for that.

[–] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

There's supposedly a fungus that only grows on the left antenna of one species of moth. So yes there are a lot of unique biomes.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 5 hours ago

That's interesting. What's wrong with the right antenna that they only like the left? Does the right have opposing political viewpoints, like being pro-life and hating foreigners?

[–] Strider@thelemmy.club 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Some animals are big enough to just have fauna, nothing micro about them. See whale lice as an example.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

I feel a bit silly now, not even thinking about symbiotic relationships between birds and things that the birds tend to perch upon. 🫣

I didn't even pose the last half of the question I initially had and now I am remembering that what prompted this post was wondering if humans being in contact with animals can be beneficial or harmful based on interactions between our body biomes.

Though it has been somewhat answered with the answers relating to salmonella on lizards and leprosy on armadillos, so it at least goes one direction with what I was wondering. 😅

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

There was actually a dog who was having all these horrific skin issues, and they couldn't figure out why until they finally discovered he was allergic to human skin shedding. He had to be moved to a shelter that let him run around with other dogs and he had low contact with humans .

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 16 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Aight, not a biologist, just an interested bystander.

But, yeah, everything alive has their microbiome. There's an assortment of standard ones that are everywhere on earth, but there's also some regional, and species specific types.

Iirc, sloths have a variety of algae that's unique to them, or it may be that it's a variant of a species. Something like that, but the point is that sloths have a biome adapted to them.

Going back to my disclaimer again, I believe that there's also a fairly species related mixture of bacteria and fungi. Not accurate numbers, but something like 50% yeast, 25%staph, 25%lactobacilii as an example. If that were our mix, a gorilla might be 50/20/30 instead. The different conditions on the skin and fur/hair mean different types of microbes will do better or worse in a given climate with given environmental conditions. Again, totally armchair on this.

But the mixes aren't static. All those microbes are competing. As conditions shift, so does the prevalence of one or some of them. That's how yeast infections usually occur. Something happens to change the strength of other microbes and the yeast goes crazy taking over

[–] Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social 10 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

I have a biology degree, but am A: plant focused and B: now a manufacturing engineer, because of you wanna do plant biology in the Midwest it's corn or soy time. And those are boring. So only marginally more applicable.

You're pretty spot on. The vast range of skin biomes directly impacts what sorts of organisms can live there. Even between a human arm, armpit, nose, and intestines you'll have different organisms making up the majority of the biome, and potentially even organisms unique to that biome.

Changes to the region or loss of competitors in other connected biomes can allow normally less dominant organisms to gain a foothold. Absolutely how one gets a yest infection. You can even just KILL EVERYTHING and still different organisms might colonize the area faster, resulting in a difference that's noticeable even at our comparably massive scale.

I didn't particularly know what organisms prefer the fur, feather, or scale coated regions of animals, but they very much would have the same type of dynamic populations.

Ballpark guess, given how there's a Salmonella risk associated with reptiles, I'd assume they have some biome that allows Salmonella to survive, if not directly thrive. Similarly with some varieties of Armadillo carrying leprosy.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Are biomes fighting to take over when we have sex? I have a friend who was getting multiple uti's after having sex with her now-ex. Is that a result of clashing biomes?

[–] maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

Yes. And inside too.