Food habits of the red fox in Greece

Papageorgiou, Nikolaos S.; Sepougaris, Athanasios; Christopoulou, Olga; Vlachos, Christos; Petamidis, John S.

doi:10.4098/at.arch.88-25

Cited by 25 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In autumn and winter, the main food of red fox and stone marten, independent of habitat changes, was small mammals, mainly rodents. Similar results were achieved in other areas for these predators (Englund 1965, Jensen and Sequeira 1978, Goszczyński 1986, Papageorgiou et al 1988, Lindstrom 1989, Jędrzejewski et al 1989, Serafini and Lovari 1993. In spring and especially in summer these predators consumed fewer small mammals in FFP.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

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Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary

Lanszki

Körmendi²,

Hancz³

et al. 1999

Acta Theriol.

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. 1999. Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary. Acta Theriologica 44: 429-442.The seasonal feeding habits of the red fox Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758), the stone marten Marłeś foina (Erxleben, 1777), the stoat Mustela erminea Linnaeus, 1758, the badger Meles meles (Linnaeus, 1758) and the otter Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) were studied in south-west Hungary, in the course of four years. The habitat conditions, because of human influences, were different in the first and second two years. Diet was examined by scat analysis (238, 262, 67, 50 and 1033 samples, respectively). Small mammals, mainly rodents, were the most important prey for foxes, stone martens and stoats in winter and spring. In summer and autumn insects and fruit were added to fox and marten diet, while birds were added to stoat diet. The badger's main food resources were invertebrates (mainly insects) and maize and, in autumn, rodents. Domestic animals (mainly poultry and rabbit) occurred in the diet of the foxes and martens in all seasons, carcasses (mainly Cervidae) in the diet of these predators and in that of the badgers. The predominant prey of otters was fish, but when the abundance of fish declined, the consumption of amphibians increased. Predation on game birds and hare was not significant. In all seasons, niche overlap was high between foxes, martens and stoats. Niche overlap between these species and the badger increased from spring to autumn. Niche overlap between terrestrial predators and the otter was low. The diet of predators were different between the 1st and 2nd periods.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Plants occur in the diet of carnivores at high frequency in central and southern Europe (Ryszkowski et al 1971, Ciampalini and Lovari 1985, Goszczyński 1986, Papageorgiou et al 1988 while their role is less significant in northern areas (Lindstrom 1989). Cerasus avium, Fragaria sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary

Lanszki

Körmendi²,

Hancz³

et al. 1999

Acta Theriol.

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“…This can be explained by the fact that there is a much more diverse food available in the growing season (e.g. Papageorgiou et al 1988;Kauhala et al 1998;Dell 0 Arte et al 2007). …”

Section: Article In Pressmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Most of the studies were concerned with the assessment of species composition of the diet in various regions and types of environment, e.g. Englund (1965), Rzebik-Kowalska (1972), Amores (1975), Goszczynski (1974), Hewson and Kolb (1975), Forbes and Lance (1976), Creutz (1978), Jensen and Sequeira (1978), Kolb and Hewson (1979), Kožená (1988), Papageorgiou et al (1988), Boldreghini and Pandolfi (1991), Reig and Jedrzejewski (1988), Doncaster et al (1990), Rosa et al (1991), Jedrzejewski and Jedrzejewska (1992), Lindström (1994), Kauhala et al (1998), Bermejo and Guitian (2000) (2005), Baltrunaite (2002Baltrunaite ( , 2006, Sidorovich et al (2006), Dell 0 Arte et al (2007). Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to the diet composition of the red fox in relation to the mountain habitats in Central Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in the diet of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in mountain habitats: Effects of altitude and season

et al. 2010

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The diet of red fox was studied on the basis of faecal analysis (2242 specimens) in mountain habitats. Three different areas of the Š umava Mts. (SW Bohemia, Czech Republic) were examined during the growing and non-growing seasons in 1998-2008. Related taxa were pooled, merging similar items into 17 groups for subsequent analysis. Patterns of food composition were interpreted using Principal Component Analysis. The diet of the red fox in mountain habitats comprises a broad spectrum of items, including big ungulates (the red fox makes use of carcass), other vertebrates, various invertebrate species, fruits, and also indigestible items. Principal components reflected the seasonal pattern in food composition (56.7% of variation in taxonomic groups among the areas and seasons) as well as altitudinal gradient (24.0% of this variation). We refer to proportional increase of Carnivora, Reptilia, Amphibia, earthworms, Mollusca, fruits, Coleoptera and other Insects in growing season compared with non-growing season at the expense of decrease in proportion of Rodentia, Artiodactyla and galliform birds. The higher occurrence of Lagomorpha, fishes, plants and indigestible items in the diet consumed in the foothills reflects their wide supplies in the urbanised areas or their functioning as prey alternatives under food conditions in lower altitudes.

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“…Within this complex Mediterranean context, information concerning the red fox's diet in Greece is limited (Papageorgiou et al, 1988). Therefore, there is a gap in knowledge about its feeding habits in the country and the effect of its predation upon game species, small mammals, and other prey groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors affecting the diet of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in a heterogeneousMediterranean landscape

Bakaloudis¹,

Bontzorlos²,

Vlachos³

et al. 2015

Turk J Zool

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The diet of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) has been well studied in Europe, but limited information exists about its feeding habits in Greece and in other Mediterranean landscapes. We studied the diet variation of the red fox by analyzing contents from 219 red fox stomachs in central Greece from 2003 to 2005. We used canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and quasi-distribution generalized linear model (GLM) response curves to investigate whether the trophic groups of the red fox diet varied temporally and/or spatially with environmental factors. Mammals, arthropods, and plants were the most important trophic groups in the diet; in particular, the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) was consumed significantly more within hunting areas. The CCA produced a significant model for the response (trophic groups) and predictor datasets (environmental, spatial, and temporal variables). In addition, GLM response curves resulted in 13 best-fitted complexity models, which were evaluated with the Akaike information criterion. The results demonstrated 4 basic predation patterns. First, the red fox showed an opportunistic exploitation of food resources according to seasonal appearance, with temporal gradients being the main drivers affecting predation. Second, the red fox had a generalist diet, consuming cold-blooded vertebrates, arthropods, birds, and small-sized carnivores in a highly seasonal way. Third, the diet showed uniform predation on small mammals in all habitat types during the study. Finally, the red fox relies on hares within hunting areas, irrespective of habitat type or temporal gradients. Additional and long-term studies are needed to understand in depth the mechanisms involved in those observed high predation rates on hares.

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Food habits of the red fox in Greece

Cited by 25 publications

References 21 publications

Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary

Feeding habits and trophic niche overlap in a Carnivora community of Hungary

Variation in the diet of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in mountain habitats: Effects of altitude and season

Factors affecting the diet of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in a heterogeneousMediterranean landscape

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