Opportunistic predation by leaf-cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on a wounded Baird's tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla: Tapiridae) in Mexico

Notwithstanding their specialized herbivorous diet, leaf-cutting ants opportunistically exploit temporary resources such as insect or vertebrate carcasses. We report on the first case of attine workers, Atta cephalotes (L.) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), foraging on the scar tissues of a living vertebrate, a wounded female Baird's tapir, Tapirus bairdii (Gill) (Mammalia: Perissodactyla: Tapiridae). We put forward 2, not mutually exclusive, hypotheses to explain such behavior: (1) utilization by the leaf-cutting ants of these tissues as a resource that provides rare essential nutrients, and (2) opportunistic sampling of polymicrobial communities associated with the skin of the wounded animal in search of new strains of their associated actinobacteria.