As the prey thickens: rainbow trout select prey based upon width not length

Autor: Michael J. Dodrill, Josh Korman, Theodore A. Kennedy, Charles B. Yackulic, Michael D. Yard
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 78:809-819
ISSN: 1205-7533
0706-652X
DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2020-0113
Popis: Drift-feeding fish are typically considered size-selective predators. Yet, few studies have explicitly tested which aspect of prey “size” best explains size selection by drift-foraging fish. Here, we develop a Bayesian discrete choice model to evaluate how attributes of both prey and predator simultaneously influence size-selective foraging. We apply the model to a large dataset of paired invertebrate drift (n = 784) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) diets (n = 1028). We characterized prey “size” using six metrics (length, width, area, hemispherical area, volume, mass) and used pseudo-R2 to determine which metric best explained observed prey selection across seven taxa. We found that rainbow trout are positively size-selective, they are selecting prey based upon differences in prey width, and size-selectivity increases with fish length. Rainbow trout demonstrated strong selection for the adult and pupae stages of aquatic insects relative to their larval stages. Our study provides strong empirical evidence for size-selective foraging in rainbow trout and demonstrates prey selection is based primarily upon width, not length or area as has been widely reported.
Databáze: OpenAIRE