Fecal habits of the great apes?

[FuzzyOgre]

My brother was wondering what habits/hygiene they exhibit. Particularly the Gorillas. Do they take care to crap off their trails and away from nesting areas?

I know they likely dont poop in their sleeping spots. Even house cats wont do that.

[GilaB]

This recent article, on a library of great ape dung samples, recommends the following method of gathering gorilla poop:

With chimps and gorillas, she said, you follow them until they start building nests for the night, take a GPS point, go back to camp, get a few hours of sleep, and then come back early in the morning to look for samples, which are usually in or near the nest. With luck, the nest also has a few stray hairs, useful for DNA analysis.

So apparently they do in fact poop where they sleep. Perhaps they poop in the morning, before they abandon that particular sleeping spot? My impression is that they are nomadic, and make new nests every night.

[FuzzyOgre]

Ok, thanks. Thats enough of an answer to satisfy my brother.