Extension of the diet of an extreme foraging specialist, the aardwolf (<i>Proteles cristata</i> )

Vries, J. L. de; Pirk, Christian W. W.; Bateman, P.W.; Cameron, Elissa Z.; Dalerum, Fredrick

doi:10.1080/15627020.2011.11407494

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Some large carnivorous mammals (Carnivora) also specialise on termite‐eating. The diet of the aardwolf (Hyaenidae) consists almost exclusively of termites of the genus Trinervitermes (Cooper & Skinner, 1979; de Vries et al ., 2011) and the bat‐eared fox (Canidae) also specialises on termites, although it is more flexible in selecting additional invertebrate prey (Jumbam et al ., 2019).…”

Section: Synopsis Of Feeding Habitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers from protists to vertebrates

et al. 2022

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Soil organisms drive major ecosystem functions by mineralising carbon and releasing nutrients during decomposition processes, which supports plant growth, aboveground biodiversity and, ultimately, human nutrition. Soil ecologists often operate with functional groups to infer the effects of individual taxa on ecosystem functions and services. Simultaneous assessment of the functional roles of multiple taxa is possible using food‐web reconstructions, but our knowledge of the feeding habits of many taxa is insufficient and often based on limited evidence. Over the last two decades, molecular, biochemical and isotopic tools have improved our understanding of the feeding habits of various soil organisms, yet this knowledge is still to be synthesised into a common functional framework. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the feeding habits of consumers in soil, including protists, micro‐, meso‐ and macrofauna (invertebrates), and soil‐associated vertebrates. We have integrated existing functional group classifications with findings gained with novel methods and compiled an overarching classification across taxa focusing on key universal traits such as food resource preferences, body masses, microhabitat specialisation, protection and hunting mechanisms. Our summary highlights various strands of evidence that many functional groups commonly used in soil ecology and food‐web models are feeding on multiple types of food resources. In many cases, omnivory is observed down to the species level of taxonomic resolution, challenging realism of traditional soil food‐web models based on distinct resource‐based energy channels. Novel methods, such as stable isotope, fatty acid and DNA gut content analyses, have revealed previously hidden facets of trophic relationships of soil consumers, such as food assimilation, multichannel feeding across trophic levels, hidden trophic niche differentiation and the importance of alternative food/prey, as well as energy transfers across ecosystem compartments. Wider adoption of such tools and the development of open interoperable platforms that assemble morphological, ecological and trophic data as traits of soil taxa will enable the refinement and expansion of the multifunctional classification of consumers in soil. The compiled multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers will serve as a reference for ecologists working with biodiversity changes and biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, making soil food‐web research more accessible and reproducible.

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Section: Synopsis Of Feeding Habitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers from protists to vertebrates

et al. 2022

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“…The diet of the aardwolf almost exclusively consists of termites of the genus Trinervitermes (Kruuk & Sands 1972;Richardson 1987b;Matsebula et al 2009;De Vries et al 2011), causing it to have one of the most specialized diets among mammals. Although mostly a solitary forager, aardwolves have been reported as socially monogamous (Koehler & Richardson 1990).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also recorded the number of observations for each animal each month to enable us to control for unequal sampling efforts. All data were summarized on a monthly basis and each month classified as either wet (September to February) or dry (March to August) season based on rainfall patterns (De Vries et al 2011). We only used den locations recorded in the mornings or early afternoons (before 16h00).…”

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confidence: 99%

Temporal patterns of den use suggest polygamous mating patterns in an obligate monogamous mammal

et al. 2012

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“…The study area has a semiarid climate, with a dry season comprising March to August and a wet season September to February (Kotze et al 2012). The reserve has hosted the majority of previous studies on aardwolf (De Vries et al, 2011;Ganswindt et al, 2012;Kotze et al, 2012;Richardson, 1985;Sliwa, 1996;Sliwa and Richardson, 1998).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is an extreme resource specialist belonging to the family Hyenidae (De Vries et al, 2011;Koehler and Richardson, 1990;Matsebula et al, 2009). Aardwolves have been described as obligately monogamous socially (Koehler and Richardson, 1990;Richardson, 1985), as a result of the necessity for a high level of paternal care caused by the increased need for females to forage away from offspring during lactation (Richardson and Coetzee, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural and endocrine correlates to the aardwolf mating system

et al. 2015

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It is now widely recognized that mating systems contain both social and genetic components, where social components describe patterns of social associations while genetic components reflect patterns of mating activities. In many species these two components do not coincide. If the level of sexual asymmetry differs between these two components, for instance in monogamous pairs with high levels of infidelity, each component may impose different selection pressures on behavioural and physiological characteristics. However, we have limited knowledge of how social and genetic components influence behaviour and physiology. The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is a small insectivorous hyaenid, which has been described as socially monogamous but sexually promiscuous. In this study, we evaluated if aardwolf space use, scent marking, foraging behaviour and endocrine fluctuations relate to predictions from social monogamy or polygamous mating. Our results did not show sex differences in behaviour or physiology that would be consistent with predictions from polygamous mating, and we suggest that social mate associations may regulate the observed endocrine and behavioural parameters more than actual mating patterns in this species. Such an interpretation would suggest that the fitness effect of promiscuous mating may be low, since it appears to impose little selection pressure on mating related behaviour. We stress that it is then unclear how promiscuous mating is maintained in this socially monogamous species.

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Extension of the diet of an extreme foraging specialist, the aardwolf (Proteles cristata )

Cited by 6 publications

References 4 publications

Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers from protists to vertebrates

Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers from protists to vertebrates

Temporal patterns of den use suggest polygamous mating patterns in an obligate monogamous mammal

Behavioural and endocrine correlates to the aardwolf mating system

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