The Relationship of Foraging Habitat to the Diet of Barn Owls &Lpar;<I
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MARCH 2005 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 97 E. van der Vorst Roncero translated the abstract into rique occidentale: adaptations6cologiques aux fluc- Spanish. tuations de production des 6cosystames.Terre Vie 32 89-133. LITERATURE CITED Voous, K.H. 1957. The birds of Aruba, Curagao, and Bo- BOSQUE,C. ANDM. LENTINO.1987. The passageof North naire. Stud. Fauna Curafao other Caribb. Isl. 29:1-260 American migratory land birds through xerophitic 1982. Straggling to islands--South American habitatson the westerncoast of Venezuela.Biotrop. 19: birds in the islands of Aruba, Cnracao, and Bonaire, 267-273. South Caribbean.J. YamashinaLnst. Ornithol. 14:171- FE}•C.USON-LEEs, J. XrqDD.A. CHInSTIn.2001. Raptors of 178. the world. Christopher Helm, London, U.K. --. 1983. Birds of the Netherlands Antilles. De Wal- FFRENCH,R. 1973. A guide to the birds of Trinidad and burg Press, Utrecht, Netherlands. Tobago. Livingstone Publishing Company, Wynne- ß 1985. Additions to the avifauna of Aruba, Cura- wood, OK U.S.A. qao and Bonaire, South Caribbeanß Ornithol.Monogr MLODINOW, S.G. 2004. First records of Little Egret, 36:247-254. Green-winged Teal, Swallow-tailedKite, Tennessee Z>a•I•ES,J.I. AND K.L. BraDSTEIN(EDS.). 2000. Raptor Warbler, and Red-breasted Blackbird from Aruba. N. watch: a global directory of raptor migration sites Am. Birds 57:559-561. BirdLife Conservation Series 9. BirdLife Internation- NIJMaN,V. 2001. Spatial and temporal variation in mi- al, Cambridge, U.K. and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, grant raptorson Java,Indonesia. Emu 101:259-263. Kempton, PA UßS.A. PRINS, T.G. AND A.O. DEBROT. 1996. First record of the Canada Warbler for Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Caribb.J. Sci. 32:248-249. Received8 January 2004; accepted3 June 2004 TmOLL4¾,J.-M. 1978. Les migrationsdes rapacesen Af- AssociateEditor: James R. Belthoff j RaptorRes.39(1):97-101 ¸ 2005 The Raptor ResearchFoundation, Inc. THE RELATIONSHIPOF FORAGINGHABITAT TO THE DIET OF BARN OWLS (TYTO ALBA) FROM CENTRAL CHILE SABINE BEGALL • Departmentof GeneralZoology, Faculty of Biologyand Geography,University of Duisbu,g-Essen, D-45117 Essen,Germany KEYWORDS: Barn Owl;Tyto alba; diet;,Chile, feeding ecology; (Schambergerand Fulk 1974, Fulk 1976, Jaksi• et al. anthropogenicdisturbance. 1993b), the Chinchilla National Reserve (Jaksi• et al 1992), or the Atacama Desert (Jaksi• et al. 1999). D•s- Severalstudies on the diet of the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) turbancesof hunting habitatsby human activitiessuch as related to broader investigationsof predator-prey rela- agriculture or pollution may differentially affect the oc- uonshipshave been conducted in Chile, most of which currence or abundance of small mammals, and thus, the •nvolved data collected in the semi-arid north-central diet of the Barn Owl. zone of this country (e.g., Schambergerand Fulk 1974, In this study, I examine the diet of Barn Owls occu- Jaksie et al. 1992, 1993b). The majority of these studies pying two ecologically-dissimilarstudy areas. Although dealt with predator-preyinteractions, and little attention both sitesare affacted by humans, their extent of distur- was paid to human influences on the Barn Owl's diet bance differs. One study site (El Alamo), located in the (e.g., Schlatteret al. 1980, Simeone1995). Indeed, most south of central Chile, consistedmainly of meadowsand of these studies were conducted in areas of reduced hu- wasonly slightlyinfluenced by human settlement.In con- man activities such as the Fray Jorge National Park trast, the second habitat (Los Maitenes) appeared to be noticeablypolluted by the copper-processingindustry as indicated by substantiallyreduced vegetative cover. Fur- • Email: [email protected] thermore, the polluted habitat lies within the geograph- 98 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS VOL. 39, NO. 1 •cal range of previousdiet studies(Jaksi• and Y•tfiez1979, RESUI.TS Herrera and Jaksi• 1980), and thus, allowscomparisons Altogether 689 individual prey were identified from between data sets. skullsfound in 557 owl pellets,resulting in 1.24 preyper pellet. However, estimates of the minimal number of MATERIALS AND METHODS specimens based on cranial and postcranial bones ac- Owl pelletswere collectedfrom two localitiesin central counted for 1.81 animals per pellet. The Barn Owl fed Chile (El Alamo and Los Maitenes) during field studies mainly on mammals(98.1%), or more preciselyon ro- conductedin January and March 1998. At both localities, dents (96.4%); the remaining 3.6% consistedof marsu- Barn Owls were observed using the roosts from which pials (1.15%), lagomorphs(0.6%), birds (1.15%), and the pellets were collected. The study site at El Alamo insects(0.7%). A total of 12 mammal specieswas iden- (36ø11'S,72ø24'W) comprisedmainly open vegetation tified, of which 10 were rodents (Table 1). Furthermore, (meadowsgrazed by cattle, goats,and sheep) with many remains of eight birds, and elytra and chitin shellsof five shrubs and relatively complete vegetation cover (80- beetles (Coleoptera) were found in the prey. Diet 100%) and scattered fields. The landscapewas inter- breadthscalculated for the broad prey categoriesmam- spersedwith forest fragments(<20%). A total of 318 pel- mals, birds, and insectswere comparablefor both study lets were collected in abandoned barns at six sites near sites (Bobs = 1.0.5 and 1.04 for E1 Alamo and Los Maite- settlements within an area of ca. 80 km 2. nes, respectively),and thus, yielded low standard niche At Los Maitenes (32ø46'S,71ø27'W), 239 pelletswere breadths (B•, = 0.026 and 0.021 for E! Alamo and Los collected in and nearby roosts that were located in the walls of a gorge, ca. 3 km from the nearest village. The Maitenes, respectively). five sampling siteswere located within a radius of ca. 5 Mammalian prey composition differed between the km. This area was contaminatedby sulphur dioxide and two localities (Table 1). Differences in the consumed arsenic emitted by an adjacent copper-processingrefin- prey acrossthe respectiverodent families were significant ery (J. Bustamente,Empresa Nacional de Minera Ven- (X2-test;P < 0.001). Whereas the cricetine rodents (Au- tanas,pers. comm.) ca. 6 km from the samplingsite. The liscomysmicropus, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, and Phyllot•s vegetationwas poorly developedwith only a few shrubs, darwini) were more abundant in the owl's diet from Los a reduced vegetativeground cover (<20%), and the soil Maitenes than in pellets originating from El Alamo, the thd not contain geophytes(Begall and Gallardo 2000). reversewas true for Abrothrixlongipilis (Table 1). Because The land has not been used for agriculture fbr at least the body massof the respectivespecies ranged between two decades. 30-70 g, the distributionof prey accordingto bodymass I dissected pellets after soaking them in water, and (Fig. 1) showsa slightlyhigher amount of medium-sized mammalian skullswere identified using the key by Reise prey (<70 g) for Los Maitenes.Barn Owlsfrom El Alamo (1973). In the case of uncertainty, skulls (especially seemedto take heavier prey like Rattusrattus or Octodon teeth) were compared with specificationsand drawings bridgesi,with the latter being absent in Los Maitenes.The by Osgood (1943) and for cricetine rodentswith an on- hne key (Huifia-pukiosLimitada 2002). Scientificnomen- fossorial coruro (Spalacopuscyanus) was found more of- clature followedJaksie (1997) for vertebrates. ten in pellets from Los Maitcnes (7.8%) than in the Prey per pellet wasestimated by summingup the num- southern locality El Alamo (2.0%). The differencesof bers of identified individual prey animals divided by the mammalian prey compositionin the diet of the Barn Owl total number of pelletsanalyzed. Calculations of the min- resulted in significantly lower GMWP at Los Maitenes imum number of specimensper pellet were derivedfrom (54.4 _+25.3 g) in comparisonto El Alamo (66.1 +_36.4, the maximum number of either left or right elementsof P < 0.001). cranial and postcranialbones (Lyman et al. 2003). Diet breadth (Bobs)was calculated using the term DISCUSSION (E•n=••)-1 with p• being the fraction of prey categoryi One of the samplinglocalities (Los Maitenes) lieswith- (Levins 1968). This index can yield values ranging be- in the geographicalrange of sampling localitiesof two tween 1-3 (according to N = three prey categories:mam- previous studiesaddressing the diet of the Barn Owl •n mals, birds, and insects). In addition, I calculated stan- central Chile (Jaksieand Yafiez 1979, Herrera andJaks•e dard niche breadths according to the equation Bst = 1980). in thesestudies, a slightlydifferent Barn Owl prey (Bobs -- B.... )/(Bmax -- Bmin) (Colwell and Futuyma spectrum was found compared to the present findings 1971). Geometricmean weight of prey (GMWP) wascal- Nevertheless,both this study and the previousones re- culatedusing the formula GMWP = antilog (EL, p, log vealed that the most important prey (•50%) consisted m,) where p• is defined as above and m, is the massof of Phyllotisdarwini and Oligoryzomyslongicaudatus. While prey category i. Data on body massof mammalian prey were obtained from Begall et al. (1999) fbr Spalacopus Herrera and Jaksi• (1980) fbund Abrocomabennetti and cyanus,from Redford and Eisenberg (1992) ibr Auliscomys Octodondegus in the diet of Chilean Barn Owlswith pro- micropusand Octodonsp., and from Herrera and Jaksie portions of 4% and 3%, respectively,these rather large (1980) for the remaining taxa. Means are given as • -+ octodontoids (body massof adults > 200 g) were absent SD (standard deviation), and mean prey sizeswere com- in pellets that