The Asian invasive freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea as prey of two native waterbirds in South-eastern Brazil

Abstract

The invasive Asiatic freshwater bivalve Corbicula fluminea is regarded as a pest in several countries including Brazil. Two water birds native to South America, the limpkin Aramus guarauna and the common gallinule Gallinula galeata, are herein recorded preying on C. fluminea in a pond of an urban park in South-eastern Brazil. The exotic clam is becoming increasingly common in the diet of both these water birds. This trend is likely due to its increasing population and the consequent rarity of the habitual prey (apple snails and native clams) for the mollusc-specialised limpkin, besides being an accessible animal protein source for the omnivorous gallinule.

Current distribution of the invasive mollusk Corbicula fluminea (O.F. Müller, 1774) (Bivalvia, Cyrenidae) in Brazil, including a new record from the state of Piauí

“…This is expected and deserves attention as running waters have a greater capacity to easily disperse these bivalves to new areas (Poleze and Callil 2015;Rosa and Dantas 2020). Similarly, the greater occurrence number in natural environments, whether lotic and lentic, indicate significant stress on native fauna, considering environmental changes caused by high population densities of C. fluminea, as discussed by Sousa et al (2008), Stuff (2011), andSazima andD'Angelo (2013). Thus, actions to control and mitigate this bioinvasion in Brazil are urgently needed.…”

Hard clam extracts induce atypical apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells

“…are very popular in Southern Asia. The latter are more popular from a dietary perspective than freshwater clams as river pollution may contaminate the waters where freshwater clams thrive ( 16 , 18 ). Hard clams (HCs) have now become one of the most pivotal aquatic products of marine cultivation, serving as a source of nutrition for people living in countries adjacent to the sea ( 19 ).…”