The diet of the Long-eared Owls, Asio otus, in the desert of northwest China

Shao, Mingxin; Liu, N.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2005.10.006

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…Our study and a study by (Shao & Liu 2006) confi rmed that this is also the case for wintering long-eared owls in the Minqin Desert. As in the case of the little owl, composition of the diet seems to be largely determined by local abundance of prey, with diets in deserts dominated by species that are abundant in arid environments (Al-Melhim et al 1997, Navarro et al2003, Shao & Liu 2006 and diets in semiarid steppe habitats and forest areas dominated by Microtines, Cricetids, or Sorex spp . (Bent 1938, Reynolds 1970, Marti 1974, Navarro et al2003.…”

Section: Long-eared Owlsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Th roughout their circumpolar range, long-eared owls feed mainly on rodents (Marti 1976, Mikkola 1983, Zhang & Cao 1995, Zhang & Cao 1999, Navarro et al2003, Shao & Liu 2006. Our study and a study by (Shao & Liu 2006) confi rmed that this is also the case for wintering long-eared owls in the Minqin Desert.…”

Section: Long-eared Owlsupporting

confidence: 64%

“…(Bent 1938, Reynolds 1970, Marti 1974, Navarro et al2003. Shao & Liu (2006) reported that Meriones meridianus was the most abundant prey species taken by long-eared owls in the spring of 2005 in Minqin Desert, indicating that there was seasonal and annual variation in the diets of long-eared owl. Th e fact that both owl species in our study fed heavily on Mus musculus suggests that they both foraged heavily in or adjacent to cultivated areas and villages, since Mus musculus in our study area was primarily restricted to those areas.…”

Section: Long-eared Owlmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diets of little owls and long-eared owls in Northwestern China

et al. 2008

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We compared diets of little owls ( Athene noctua ) and long-eared owls ( Asio otus ) in the Minqin Desert in northwestern China. Based on prey numbers, little owls fed mainly on mammals (51.0%) and beetles (46.9%), whereas long-eared owl fed almost exclusively on mammals (96.4%). Based on biomass, both species fed mainly on mammals. Mus musculus , Cricetulus barabensis and Meriones meridianus were the three most common mammals taken by both species. Seasonal variation was found in the diets of both species. Food niche breadth was 3.4 for little owls vs 2.9 for long-eared owls. Dietary overlap between the two species was 49.6%, but varied from 4.0% in April to 96% in January. Dietary overlap of mammals was 97.9%, indicating that both owls fed on similar rodent assemblages. Mean mass of prey was 25.8 ± 22.7 g for long-eared owls and 15.5 ± 22.7 g for little owls. Th e mean length of tibias of mammals in pellets also indicted that, on average, long-eared owls (18.1 ± 5.6 mm) took larger prey than little owls (16.2 ± 4.7 mm).

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Section: Long-eared Owlsupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Long-eared Owlsupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Long-eared Owlmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diets of little owls and long-eared owls in Northwestern China

et al. 2008

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“…It was also found that Long-eared Owl's dominant preys diff er among diff erent localities in China (table 4); e.g. in similar habitat, primary prey items in our study is diff erent from that reported by Shao and Liu (2006) who studied the diet of Long-eared Owls in Minqin Desert Experiment Research Station, also in Gansu province which indicated that M. meridianus , C. barabensis and Phodopus roborovskii were the most comman prey items. However, the result of present study is extreme similar with the result reported by Zhao et al ( 2008 ).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

“…Diet of Long-eared Owls have been studied from a variety of habitats and Long-eared Owls utilize a wide rang of prey items with respect to their habitats: villages and cultivations (Ma and Xiao, 1995 ;Salvati et al, 2001 ;Kawaguchi and Yamamoto, 2003 ), meadows (Tome, 2003 ), urban environment (Zhao et al, 1986 ;Zhang and Cao, 1999 ;Laiu and Muraria, 1998;Laiu et al, 2002 ;Chiba et al, 2005 ;Bao et al, 2007 ), suburban environment (Zhang and Zhang, 1990 ), woodland areas (Reynolds, 1970 ;Matsuoka, 1974 ;Ma and Xiao, 1995 ;Xie et al, 1998;Noguchi, 2000 ;Bertolino et al, 2001 ), semi-arid steppe (Navarro et al 2003 ), and arid desert (Shao and Liu, 2006;Zhao et al, 2008 ). Seasonal variation in diet of Long-eared Owls is less well known, particularly for the semi-arid desert of northwestern China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal variation in the diet of Long-eared Owl, Asio otus, in the desert of Northwest China

Liu

Zhao

Wang³

et al. 2010

Animal Biol

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Regurgitated pellets (n = 584) of Long-eared Owl ( Asio otus ) were collected for three seasons from Gansu Endangered Animal Research Center, Gansu Province, China. From these pellets, a total of 1011 individual prey items -representing seven species of rodents and two undetermined species of birds and one undetermined sorex-species -were identifi ed. Long-eared Owls depend mainly on small mammals both based on prey numbers (95.5%) and prey biomass (97.0%). Th e composition of the diet of Long-eared Owls varied signifi cantly among seasons by frequency and by biomass. Th e individual species groups indicated signifi cant variation among seasons for Mus musculus , Meriones meridianus , Cricetulus barabensis , Phodopus roborovskii , Dipus sagitta and Rattus norvegicus by biomass. And the diff erence of seasonal variation of prey items were signifi cant but not for Mus musculus by frequency. Based on prey numbers, Mus musculus was the main food item (50.5%) in its diet; this species was most common in autumn (56.9%) and least common during spring (36.7%). Main prey species, based on prey biomass, was Rattus norvrgicus which comprised 27.5% of total biomass from our pellet samples. Th e mean length of tibias of mammals in pellets of Long-eared Owls was 18.6 ± 5.4 mm. Long-eared Owls utilize a wide range of prey items in respect to their habitats. Results suggest that Long-eared Owls are selective predators at some levels.

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Responses of the long-eared owl Asio otus diet and the numbers of wintering individuals to changing abundance of the common vole Microtus arvalis

et al. 2015

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Opportunistic predator like the long-eared owl is able to respond to population fluctuations of its main prey. The composition of the winter diet of this owl species was investigated during the period of 13 winters (1992-2000, 2006-2011) in agricultural areas in Slovakia. In total, we found 23 mammal species and 33 bird species (H′ = 0.82) in pellets. The frequency of the dominant prey species, the common vole, varied from 57.7% to 92.4%. Our data show that the abundance of the common vole: (i) had biggest impact on the food niche breadth of the long-eared owl; (ii) when in decline, it was significantly compensated by the increase in the amount of 15 other accessory species (subject to the specific diet offered during the study winters); (iii) was positively correlated with the number of owls in the winter-roost, which varied during the 13 studied winters.

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The diet of the Long-eared Owls, Asio otus, in the desert of northwest China

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Diets of little owls and long-eared owls in Northwestern China

Diets of little owls and long-eared owls in Northwestern China

Seasonal variation in the diet of Long-eared Owl, Asio otus, in the desert of Northwest China

Responses of the long-eared owl Asio otus diet and the numbers of wintering individuals to changing abundance of the common vole Microtus arvalis

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