The diet of Indian foxes in a peri-urban area of eastern India
| Autor: | Abhilash Acharya, Himanshu Shekhar Palei, Udit Pratap Das |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: |
geography
Resource (biology) geography.geographical_feature_category Ecology Spondias pinnata biology Range (biology) 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences 010501 environmental sciences biology.organism_classification Urban area Generalist and specialist species 01 natural sciences Habitat 040103 agronomy & agriculture 0401 agriculture forestry and fisheries Vulpes bengalensis Carnivore Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Acta Ecologica Sinica. 42:679-683 |
| ISSN: | 1872-2032 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.chnaes.2021.04.002 |
| Popis: | Urban expansions into natural habitats have forced many carnivores to adapt to the modified areas; however, our understanding of their ecology in such areas is limited. The Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis) is a small carnivore species that can adapt and exploit urban areas due to its generalist nature, but there is a paucity of data on Indian foxes in these human-modified areas. To understand the resource requirement of Indian foxes in urban habitats, we conducted a diet analysis by examining 119 scats of Indian foxes in a peri-urban habitat of Baripada town, Odisha, eastern India. To determine the diet composition of Indian foxes, we analyzed scat contents by their frequency occurrence (%FO), the relative frequency of occurrence (%RF) and mean percent volume (%Vm). Indian foxes consumed a wide range of food categories, including arthropods, rodents, reptiles, birds, plant parts and anthropogenic resources. In %Vm, rodents showed the highest volume, followed by polythene, Spondias pinnata fruit and Coleoptera. We found anthropogenic foods in considerable quantities, including polythene and paper. The diet of Indian foxes indicates that the species has opportunistic and generalist feeding habits consisting primarily of easily accessible foods. Furthermore, management efforts should focus on the proper management of waste and control of anthropogenic food sources in urban habitats. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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