Temporal changes in prey composition and biomass delivery to African Crowned Eagle nestlings in urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
| Autor: | Shane C. McPherson, Tim van der Meer, Colleen T. Downs |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Eagle Biomass (ecology) biology Zoology Stephanoaetus coronatus Bostrychia hagedash biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 010605 ornithology Predation Rock hyrax Nest biology.animal Camera trap Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | Ostrich. 89:241-250 |
| ISSN: | 1727-947X 0030-6525 |
| DOI: | 10.2989/00306525.2018.1449027 |
| Popis: | Globally urban areas are expanding rapidly and this usually has negative effects on biodiversity. Despite this, some species manage to persist in urban areas, as is the case with African Crowned Eagles Stephanoaetus coronatus in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As relatively little is known about African Crowned Eagle nestling diet, especially about how it changes with nestling age, we investigated this with nest camera-traps. We analysed temporal changes in prey composition and biomass delivery during the nestling stage. We also recorded which adults provisioned and attended the nest. The main prey fed to nestlings were Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis and Hadeda Ibis Bostrychia hagedash. Adult males did most of the food provisioning, especially at the start of the nestling period. We found a decrease in total prey number and biomass with nestling age. This may be caused by changing requirements of nestlings. Furthermore, delivering fewer prey at later nestling stages may be a facilitating mechanism to enhance f... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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