Euphorbia taifensis is a new species of Euphorbia discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2007, its fruits are eaten by Hamadryas baboon "Papio hamadryas" in case of severe hunger, it seems very unusual that the fruits are eaten by animals because the genus Euphorbia contains very irritant diterpenens.
Is there in literature some similar cases?
Their feeding on members of the genus seems to be quite well-established in the literature, going back some decades?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.1972.tb00862.x/abstract
Dear Dr Jerrit, thank you for the article. This interesting data stimulate me to know the fate of these diterpene after ingestion and metabolism inside baboon's GIT. a metabolomic study could be performed on baboon's feces.
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