Morphometric Study on the Digestive System of the Wild Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Nzalak, J. O.; Wanmi, N.; Samuel, M. O.

doi:10.21608/jva.2015.44867

Morphometric Study on the Digestive System of the Wild Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello Uni- versity, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria.

² Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agri- culture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

10.21608/jva.2015.44867

Abstract

The present study was conducted on Five apparently healthy wild gray squirrel of different ages and sexes. The various parts of the digestive system of each animal were dissected out and were weighed and measured. The small intestine was observed to have the highest mean weight (5.86 ± 0.8 g) followed by the large intestine (2.98 ± 0.49 g). Of all the intestinal segments, the duodenum was observed to have the highest mean weight (2.49 ± 0.32 g) followed by the jejunum (2.03 ± 0.29 g) The mean length of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) was observed to be 136.10 ± 10 cm with the small intestine having a mean length value 90.73 ± 10.31 cm and was ob- served to have the longest segment, followed by the large intestine (31.54 ± 2.25 cm). Out of all the intestinal segments (small and large) the jejunum was observed to have the longest segment (32.39 ± 4.19 cm) followed by the ileum (27.93 ± 4.31 cm) and the duodenum (25.53 ± 2.67 cm), respectively. The liver was observed to have the mean weight (18.36 ± 0.77 g) and had no gall bladder. The caecum had the least value of the segments of the large intestine; the colon and rectum had almost the same mean length (14.64 ± 1.84 cm and 14.54 ± 0.60 cm, respectively). The absence of gallbladder will have a direct effect on the emulsification of fats. The short length of the colon and rectum indicates that no digestion takes place in those regions.

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