Assimilation efficiency in birds: A function of taxon or food type?

Castro, Gonzalo; Stoyan, Nina C.; Myers, J. P.

doi:10.1016/0300-9629(89)90563-x

Cited by 160 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In M. myotis, fed American cockroaches, the digestibility coefficient (DMD) was 13.2% lower than the average dry mass digestibility in 6 bat species fed mealworm larvae (82.5%; Table 2) and slightly lower than coefficient of energy digestibility (DE) estimated by Barclay et al (1991) in 3 Myotis species fed on moths (note that DMD is usually 3-5% lower than DE). The food assimilation coefficient (67.2%) approached the average value of the energy assimilation coefficient in insectivorous birds fed insects (73.6%, from data by Castro et al 1989) and in shrews (72.8%, Table 3). These data show that the assimilation coefficient in small insectivorous mammals is strongly affected by the type of food (chemical composition and chitinization of insects) and that under natural conditions it is much lower than estimated in previous studies (85%, Grodziriski and Wunder 1975; 88%, Anthony and Kunz 1977).…”

Section: Rate Of Food Passage Through the Gastrointestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 66%

Digestion, defecation and food passage rate in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis

Stalinski

1994

Acta Theriol.

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Staliński J. 1994. Digestion, defecation and food passage rate in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis. Acta theriol. 39: 1-11.The coefficient of dry mass digestibility (DMD) in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis (Borkhausen, 1797), fed American cockroaches, is 69.3%. This is comparable with the average digestibility and assimilation coefficients in insectivorous mammals and birds, but it is much lower than estimated in previous studies on Insectivorous bats. The rate of passage of food marked with basic fuchsin (ts = 25, tso = 44, t9o = 77 minutes) and the defecation rate indicate extremely rapid digestion of food, which is connected with the feeding and foraging strategies of insectivorous bats. It is concluded, that previous estimations of bats' food consumption under natural conditions were lowered by the assumption of high digestibility of food or insignificant amount of feces defecated outside the rest place.

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Section: Rate Of Food Passage Through the Gastrointestinal Tractmentioning

confidence: 66%

Digestion, defecation and food passage rate in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis

Stalinski

1994

Acta Theriol.

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“…prey items in such dietary studies (e.g., Trnka 1995, Grim andHonza 1997). This does not necessarily represent a disadvantage for any dietary study, including the present one, because various types of insect show similar nutritional and energetic values (more similar to each other than to other diet types such as fruits; Castro et al 1989).…”

Section: Analyses Of Video-recordingsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…According to the nutritional deficiency hypothesis (Izhaki and Safriel 1989), fruits generally represent an inferior diet for any bird, as the assimilation efficiency (i.e. ''the efficiency with which ingested food is converted to usable energy''; Castro et al 1989:271) for fruits (41%) is only approximately half that for invertebrates (74%; table 4 in Castro et al 1989). Lizards, like other animal food (see small vertebrates in Castro et al 1989), show a high assimilation efficiency (78%), but this holds for carnivorous birds, namely falcons and owls; the assimilation efficiency for a vertebrate diet in otherwise insectivorous passerine nestlings is unknown (Castro et al 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…''the efficiency with which ingested food is converted to usable energy''; Castro et al 1989:271) for fruits (41%) is only approximately half that for invertebrates (74%; table 4 in Castro et al 1989). Lizards, like other animal food (see small vertebrates in Castro et al 1989), show a high assimilation efficiency (78%), but this holds for carnivorous birds, namely falcons and owls; the assimilation efficiency for a vertebrate diet in otherwise insectivorous passerine nestlings is unknown (Castro et al 1989). Regardless, switching between diets, e.g., plant and animal foods, is known to be costly in terms of compromised digestive efficiency (Levey and Karasov 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is brood parasitism related to host nestling diet and nutrition?

Ladin

D’Amico

Jaisi

et al. 2015

The Auk

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“…Cramp & Simmons (1983. BMR values were transformed into K J/day Q = assimilation efficiency (80 %; mean value of different sources; Kersten & Piersma, 1987;Castro et al, 1989;Zwarts & Blomert, 1990) E = 22 KJ/g AFDW; mean energy content of marine benthic animals in the Wadden Sea (Zwarts & Wanink, 1993) Daily energy expenditure (DEE) was assumed to be 3 9 BMR (Kersten & Piersma, 1987). For Eiders, monthly consumption estimates from a feeding study in the K6nigshafen were used (Nehls, 1995).…”

Section: Calculation Of Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumption of benthic fauna by carnivorous birds in the Wadden Sea

Scheiffarth

Nehls²

1997

Helgoländer Meeresunters.

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Consumption by carnivorous birds was estimated for the Sylt-R~mo tidal inlet in the northern part of the Wadden Sea, as well as the subarea K6nigshafen, a small, tidal bay. The bird community of the Sylt-Reme Wadden Sea was dominated by Dunlin (35 % of all birds counted), Eider (9 %), Oystercatcher (8 %), Knot (8 %), and Shelduck (7 %). The community in the Kbnigshafen was dominated by Eider (20 %), Knot (17 %), Bar-tailed Godwit (17 %), Dunlin (13 %), and Oystercatcher (8 %). Annual consumption was estimated at 3.4 g AFDW 9 m -2 9 year 1 for the entire SyltRomo Wadden Sea and 19.2 g AFDW 9 m -2 9 year -I for the K6nigshafen. Restricting the calculations to the intertidal area resulted in a consumption of 8.7 g AFDW 9 m -2 9 year -I for the Sylt-Remo Wadden Sea and 17.6 g AFDW 9 m -2 9 year -: for the K6nigshafen. In the two areas, consumption was dominated by the Eider with 37 % and 60 % of the total consumption, respectively. In comparison to the western parts of the Wadden Sea the seasonal pattern of consumption as well as species composition differed, most probably as an effect of different climatic conditions, whereas annual consumption on intertidal flats seems to be in the same order of magnitude. On average, 15-25 % of the mean annual macrozoobenthic biomass seems to be taken by carnivorous birds in the Wadden Sea, which is in the same order of magnitude as in other northern temperate estuarine areas. I N T R O D U C T I O N T h e W a d d e n Sea, a l a r g e i n t e r t i d a l a r e a (8000 k m 2) s t r e t c h i n g a l o n g t h e s o u t he a s t e r n s h o r e of t h e N o r t h Sea, is of p a r t i c u l a r i m p o r t a n c e for m i g r a t o r y birds, w h i c h usethis a r e a as a s t o p -o v e r site on t h e i r a n n u a l m i g r a t i o n s b e t w e e n s o u t h e r n w i n t e r i n g a n d n o r t h e r n b r e e d i n g areas. A b o u t 10-12 million b i r d s s p e n d at l e a s t a p a r t of t h e i r a n n u a l life cycle in this a r e a (Meltofte et al., 1994). Birds are the m o s t p r o m i n e n t m e m b e r s of i n t e r t i d a l e c o s y s t e m s , o f t e n r o a m i n g a r o u n d in s p e c t a c u l a r flocks of m a n y t h o u s a n d s . A l t h o u g h t h e e f f i c i e n c y of e n e r g y t r a n s f e r to b i r d s in i n t e r t i d a l s y s t e m s is h i g h in c o m p arison to t e r r e s t r i a l e c o s y s t e m s (Baird & M i l n e , 1981;Baird et al., 1985; K r e b s , 1985), t h e i r role in i n t e r t i d a l e c o s y s t e m s , if m e a s u r e d as t h e i r c o n t r i b u t i o n to e n e r g y or c a r b o n flow, is g e n e r a l l y c o n s i d e r e d to b e of m i n o r i m p o r t a n c e , s i n c e t h e i r c o n s u m p t i o n o n l y affects a small f r a c t i o n of p r i m a r y p r o d u c t i o n a n d d e t r i t u s i m p o r t (Kuipers et al., 1981; ~ Address for correspondence 9 Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Hamburg

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Assimilation efficiency in birds: A function of taxon or food type?

Cited by 160 publications

References 61 publications

Digestion, defecation and food passage rate in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis

Digestion, defecation and food passage rate in the insectivorous bat Myotis myotis

Is brood parasitism related to host nestling diet and nutrition?

Consumption of benthic fauna by carnivorous birds in the Wadden Sea

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