The Diet of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) in the Desert Habitats of Northwestern China

Shao, Mingxin; Liu, Naifa

doi:10.3356/jrr-05-17.1

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Similarity measures showed a fair distinctiveness between the studied sites based on the pellet analyses Correspondingly, this was also experienced by Shao and Liu (2008) when comparing diet composition of Little Owls inhabiting sites of similar habitat types. The low number of common species is likely to be related to the varied distribution of certain habitat elements.…”

Section: Hámori Gy Szél and D Winklersupporting

confidence: 58%

“…The forest patches provide optimal night roosts for starlings where they can be easily caught by Little Owls. Other bird prey items include the House Sparrow or the White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) are clearly linked to the farm buildings in these sites and are often falling prey to the Little Owls (Marián & Schmidt 1968, Grzywaczewski et al 2006, Shao & Liu 2008, Kitowski & Pawlega 2010, Pocora et al 2012. The absence of birds in pellets collected in Kunpeszér might be explained by the site characteristics, as neither the sparse Black Locust trees nor the dense pine plantations can provide night roosts preferred by Common Starlings.…”

Section: Hámori Gy Szél and D Winklermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food composition of the Little Owl(Athene noctua)in a farmland area of Central Hungary, with particular attention to arthropod diversity

2017

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The feeding of Little Owl (Athene noctua) was studied in a farmland area of Kiskunság, Central Hungary. For the analyses, a total of 661 Little Owl pellets were collected between February and September 2005 from three locations, corresponding known Little Owl territories situated nearby the settlements Apaj, Kunpeszér and Ladány-bene. The aim of the present study was to explore the diet composition of Little Owl and to give a detailed evaluation of the arthropod diversity based on the pellet analysis. The identified prey items represented 15 vertebrate and 39 invertebrate species/taxa. In terms of prey number, dominance of small mammals was observed in two sites (Apaj -55%, Kunpeszér -68%), while birds and mammals shared almost equal dominance (~25%) in Ladánybene. The most numerous mammal species was the Common Vole (Microtus arvalis), while the Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) played key role among the birds. Contribution of amphibian Common Spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) was considerable, while share of reptiles was marginal. Vertebrates also played a predominant role by contributing over 99% of the overall prey biomass in all study sites. Invertebrate prey dominance ranged from 24.8-30.0% while their contribution to the overall biomass was very low (0.14-0.34%). Large sized beetles (Pentodon idiota, Melolontha hippocastani) and orthopterans (Tettigonia viridissima, Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa) were preferred. Arthropod species richness and diversity were the highest in Kunpeszér, supposedly owing to the rich mosaic habitat structure.Keywords: feeding ecology, diet, pellet analysis, Strigiformes, Coleoptera, farmland Összefoglalás A kuvik (Athene noctua) táplálkozását Közép-Magyarország (Kiskunság) alföldi tanyavilágában vizsgáltuk. Az elemzésekhez 2005. február és szeptember között, összesen 661 köpetet gyűjtöttünk Apaj, Kunpeszér és Ladánybene települések közelében, amely területek egyben három aktuális kuvik revírnek feleltek meg. A kutatás fő célja a faj táplálékspektrumának feltárása, valamint a köpetelemzések alapján a vizsgált területek ízeltlábú-diverzitásának összehasonlító vizsgálata volt. A köpetekből azonosított zsákmányállatok 15 gerinces és 39 gerinctelen taxont képviseltek. Az egyedszámot tekintve két helyszínen a kisemlősök domináltak (Apaj -55%, Kunpeszér -68%), míg a harmadik helyszínen (Ladánybene) a kisemlősök és a madarak közel azonos arányban (~25%) voltak jelen. A leggyakoribb kisemlős zsákmánynak a mezei pocok (Microtus arvalis) bizonyult, míg a madarak közül a seregély (Sturnus vulgaris) fogyasztása volt jelentős. A barna ásóbéka (Pelobates fuscus) jelenléte a köpetanyagban figyelemre méltó, míg a hüllők részaránya nagyrészt elhanyagolható volt a vizsgált helyszíneken. A gerinces zsákmányállatok jelentőségét a magas, 99% feletti tömeg szerinti részarányuk is bizonyítja. A gerinctelenek egyedszám szerinti rész-aránya 24,8-30,0% volt, tömeg szerinti részesedésük azonban rendkívül csekély (0,14-0,34%). A kuvik a területen nagyrészt a nagyobb méretű bogarakat (Pentodon idiota, Melolontha hip...

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Section: Hámori Gy Szél and D Winklersupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Hámori Gy Szél and D Winklermentioning

confidence: 99%

Food composition of the Little Owl(Athene noctua)in a farmland area of Central Hungary, with particular attention to arthropod diversity

2017

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“…However, depending on the climatic regions and the type of habitat, this category may be followed by birds, reptiles, or invertebrates (van Nieuwenhuyse, Génot, and Johnson 2008;Tomé et al 2008;Żmihorski, Romanowski, and Osojca 2009;Šálek, Riegert, and Křivan 2010). Likewise, rodents are of greater importance in the diet during the pre-reproductive period than during other periods of the owl's life cycle (Martin 1987;Shao and Liu 2008). More or less cold climatic conditions prevailing in this period favor the capture of rodents rather than that of other prey due to the absence of dense vegetation, on the one hand (van Nieuwenhuyse, Génot, and Johnson 2008), and scarce and limited food resources, on the other; the abovementioned circumstances sometimes are the cause of owl mortality in winter (Massemin and Handrich 1997).…”

Section: Zoology and Ecology 319mentioning

confidence: 96%

Diet of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) during the pre-reproductive period in a semi-arid Mediterranean region

Chenchouni

2014

Zoology and Ecology

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The assessment of feeding conditions and variations in diet composition over the pre-breeding period of birds plays a keyrole in the understanding of reproductive performance. Pellets regurgitated by the Little Owl, Athene noctua, were collected from Boulhilet (Batna, north-east Algeria). The analysis of 48 pellets resulted in the identification of 471 preyitems of 38 different species classified into 6 classes, 7 orders, 21 families, and 35 genera. Although the diet of the Little Owl mainly consists of arthropods, it is highly diverse (Food Niche Breadth = 14.5, Shannon index = 4.4 bits). Insects are made up 90% of the consumed food; however, they accounted only for 8% of the total biomass. Small mammal prey constituting a rich source of energy during the pre-breeding period, when other kinds of prey are not available due to cold conditions, made up 72% of the diet biomass. We found no significant variation in rodents as a component (number of prey-individuals, biomass, and prey-species richness, prey-species occurrence) of the Little Owl's diet between study months and years. Meanwhile, the other identified prey-categories, principally invertebrates (characterized by prey frequency, composition, and biomass) showed significant variations between months and/or years of the study. We suggest that these prey categories represent a food supplement when conditions become severe.Mitybos sąlygos ir mitybos pokyčiai prieš perėjimą yra labai svarbūs paukščių veisimosi sėkmei. Išanalizavus paprastųjų pelėdikių (Athene noctua) 48 atrajas, surinktas Boulhilet (Batna, Alžyro šiaurės rytuose), buvo apibūdintos 38 rūšių grobio liekanos (n = 471), priskiriamos 6 klasėms, 7 būriams, 21 šeimai ir 35 gentims. Paprastosios pelėdikės mityba buvo labai įvairi (mitybinės nišos pločio indeksas FNB = 14,5, Šenono H = 4,4), jos pagrindą sudarė nariuotakojai. 90% pelė-dikių suvartoto maisto (8% biomasės) sudarė vabzdžiai. Vertinant pagal biomasę, 72% pelėdikių mityboje sudarė smulkieji žinduoliai. Jie yra geras energijos šaltinis prieš perėjimą, kuomet dėl atšiaurių oro sąlygų stinga kitų rūšių grobio. Reikšmingų skirtumų tarp smulkiųjų žinduolių individų skaičiaus, biomasės, rūšinės įvairovės bei aptikimo dažnio pelė-dikių maiste įvairiais tyrimo metais ir mėnesiais nebuvo nustatyta. Kitų grobio rūšių, ypač bestuburių, aptikimo dažnis, rūšinė sudėtis ir biomasė įvairiais mėnesiais ir metais reikšmingai skyrėsi. Manome, kad esant atšiaurioms sąlygoms toks grobis tik papildo paprastosios pelėdikės mitybą.

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“…Among bird species, the Starling proved to be the most commonly caught prey, but bird species like the White Wagtail (Motacilla alba), the Western Yellow Wagtail (M. flava) and the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus), closely related to other farmland habitats, were also preyed by Little Owls. These songbirds are definitely connected also to grassland habitats (Marián & Schmidt 1968, Grzywaczewski et al 2006, Shao & Liu 2008, Kitowski & Pawlega 2010, Pocora et al 2012. The lack of birds in the owl pellets collected in the Upper Kiskunság Lakes can be explained by the habitat characteristics, being a large open area, free from any trees and bushes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Little Owl’s (Athene noctua) vertebrate food composition during breeding season with high frog dominance in grasslands

2019

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The aim of our study was to investigate the feeding of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) during the breeding period in three protected sites (Upper Kiskunság Puszta, Upper Kiskunság Lakes, Peszéradacs Meadows) in an extensively managed lowland plain area (Upper Kiskunság) of the Carpathian Basin. A further objective was to provide a detailed assessment of the vertebrate prey spectrum and dominance structure based on the analyses of pellets. Little Owl pellets were collected in September 2015 and 2016 from 20 artificial nest boxes in which successful breeding occurred in both years. Mean pellet number was calculated per individuals. Distribution of individual number and biomass of vertebrate prey taxa were also examined. The number of collected and dissected owl pellets was 2,094 in 2015 and 2,024 in 2016, respectively. The average rate of pellet regurgitation was 25.57 pellets/ind. in 2015, and 27.74 pellets/ind. in 2016. From the 40 samples (4,118 owl pellets) a total of 2,017 vertebrate preys were determined. Cumulative species richness was 21, including 12 mammalian, 1 amphibian, 4 reptile and 4 bird species. Mammals were dominant in the food (average 50.83%), and the consumption of amphibians was similar (48.06%). The consumption of birds and reptiles was not significant. Amphibians were represented by a single species, the Common Spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) in remarkably high proportions among the prey items, followed by the Common Vole (Microtus arvalis) by approx. 37% proportion. The high proportion of the latter two species was also clearly reflected in the biomass amounts. Among the birds, the Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) proved to be the most commonly predated species apart from other species closely related to farmland habitats (Motacilla alba, M. flava, Passer montanus).

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The Diet of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) in the Desert Habitats of Northwestern China

Cited by 11 publications

References 5 publications

Food composition of the Little Owl(Athene noctua)in a farmland area of Central Hungary, with particular attention to arthropod diversity

Food composition of the Little Owl(Athene noctua)in a farmland area of Central Hungary, with particular attention to arthropod diversity

Diet of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) during the pre-reproductive period in a semi-arid Mediterranean region

Little Owl’s (Athene noctua) vertebrate food composition during breeding season with high frog dominance in grasslands

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