Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) foraging over native and vineyard habitats in British Columbia, Canada

2011 ◽  
Vol 89 (9) ◽  
pp. 816-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Rambaldini ◽  
R.M. Brigham
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Prey Abundance ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Antrozous Pallidus ◽  
Shrub Steppe ◽  
Pallid Bats ◽  
Pallid Bat

Optimal foraging theory predicts organisms will forage in habitats providing the most profitable prey. Human alterations to ecosystems may affect predators’ foraging activity by changing landscape features, prey types, and prey availability. Assessing the selection of foraging habitats in a heterogeneous landscape can provide data to improve land management and conservation policies. In Canada, the pallid bat ( Antrozous pallidus (LeConte, 1856); Vespertilionidae) is listed as threatened partly because of loss or modification of shrub–steppe habitat. Our purpose was to determine if vineyards provide a suitable surrogate for foraging habitat relative to native habitat. We used pitfall traps to compare prey abundance in each habitat and analyzed faeces to assess diet composition. Over 24 nights, we surveyed both habitats for foraging bats. Bats foraged over vineyards, but we recorded significantly more foraging activity over native habitat. We collected over 2000 arthropods in pitfall traps and found significantly more in native habitat compared with vineyards. Species eaten by pallid bats were present in both habitats. Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabidae) and Jerusalem crickets (Orthopthera: Stenopelmatidae) represented the principal prey. The use of vineyards by pallid bats for foraging suggests that while they are adapting to a changing landscape, reduced prey abundance in vineyards may negatively affect them over the long term.

scholarly journals Mesquite bugs, other insects, and a bat in the diet of pallid bats in southeastern Arizona

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e6065
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Czaplewski ◽  
Katrina L. Menard ◽  
William D. Peachey
Keyword(s):  
Late Summer ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Noninvasive Method ◽  
Antrozous Pallidus ◽  
Soil Piping ◽  
Pallid Bats ◽  
Small Vertebrate ◽  
Bat Wing ◽  
Pallid Bat

The pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) is a species of western North America, inhabiting ecoregions ranging from desert to oak and pine forest. They are primarily insectivorous predators on large arthropods that occasionally take small vertebrate prey, and are at least seasonally omnivorous in certain parts of their geographic range where they take nectar from cactus flowers and eat cactus fruit pulp and seeds. Until recently, mesquite bugs were primarily tropical-subtropical inhabitants of Mexico and Central America but have since occupied the southwestern United States where mesquite trees occur. Using a noninvasive method, we investigated the bats’ diet at the Cienega Creek Natural Preserve, Arizona, by collecting food parts discarded beneath three night roosts in soil-piping cavities in a mesquite bosque. We also made phenological and behavioral observations of mesquite bugs, Thasus neocalifornicus, and their interactions with the mesquite trees. We determined that the bats discarded inedible parts of 36 species in 8 orders of mainly large-bodied and nocturnal insects below the night-roosts. In addition, one partial bat wing represents probable predation upon a phyllostomid bat, Choeronycteris mexicana. About 17 of the insect taxa are newly reported as prey for pallid bats, as is the bat C. mexicana. The majority of culled insect parts (88%) were from adult mesquite bugs. Mesquite bug nymphs did not appear in the culled insect parts. After breeding in late summer, when nighttime low temperatures dropped below 21 °C, the adult bugs became immobile on the periphery of trees where they probably make easy prey for opportunistic foliage-gleaning pallid bats. Proximity of night-roosts to mesquite bug habitat probably also enhances the bats’ exploitation of these insects in this location.

Ecology of gyrfalcons, Falco rusticolus, in the central Canadian Arctic: diet and feeding behaviour

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. G. Poole ◽  
D. A. Boag
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behaviour ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Spermophilus Parryii ◽  
Falco Rusticolus ◽  
Lagopus Mutus ◽  
Spring Arrival ◽  
Average Size

Diet and aspects of feeding behaviour in a population of gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) in the Northwest Territories were examined between 1984 and 1986. Three prey species, rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus), arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii), and arctic hare (Lepus arcticus), composed 96.5% of total prey biomass identified. Ptarmigan and hares were taken in May and June of all years (98.2% of biomass). Juvenile squirrels were used extensively in July and August of 1984 and 1985 but not in 1986, when squirrel production fell to almost zero; ptarmigan continued to be the dominant prey species throughout that summer. Because densities of breeding ptarmigan remained relatively constant during the study, but those of juvenile ground squirrels did not, it appeared that gyrfalcons responded functionally to varying availability of prey. Mean weight (250 g) of prey taken by male gyrfalcons was significantly less than the weight (330 g) of prey taken by females. As predicted by optimal foraging theory, average size of prey brought to the nest increased as time away from the nest increased. Conditions of food abundance were observed at most nests, suggesting that the amount of food available during the nestling period was not limiting production. We suggest that annual production is a function of spacing of pairs, which is set during courtship and prelaying, when prey availability is at its yearly low and when males must forage for both members of the pair. The fact that most gyrfalcon pairs initiated laying only after the spring arrival of migrating ptarmigan is consistent with this conclusion.

Foraging modes of carnivorous plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Ellison
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Carnivorous Plants ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Single Location ◽  
Foraging Modes

Abstract Carnivorous plants are pure sit-and-wait predators: they remain rooted to a single location and depend on the abundance and movement of their prey to obtain nutrients required for growth and reproduction. Yet carnivorous plants exhibit phenotypically plastic responses to prey availability that parallel those of non-carnivorous plants to changes in light levels or soil-nutrient concentrations. The latter have been considered to be foraging behaviors, but the former have not. Here, I review aspects of foraging theory that can be profitably applied to carnivorous plants considered as sit-and-wait predators. A discussion of different strategies by which carnivorous plants attract, capture, kill, and digest prey, and subsequently acquire nutrients from them suggests that optimal foraging theory can be applied to carnivorous plants as easily as it has been applied to animals. Carnivorous plants can vary their production, placement, and types of traps; switch between capturing nutrients from leaf-derived traps and roots; temporarily activate traps in response to external cues; or cease trap production altogether. Future research on foraging strategies by carnivorous plants will yield new insights into the physiology and ecology of what Darwin called “the most wonderful plants in the world”. At the same time, inclusion of carnivorous plants into models of animal foraging behavior could lead to the development of a more general and taxonomically inclusive foraging theory.

scholarly journals Habitat Use by Nuttall’s Cottontails (Sylvilagus nuttallii nuttallii) at their Northern Range Edge (British Columbia, Canada)

2017 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-140
Author(s):  
Emily J. Herdman ◽  
Karen E. Hodges
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Habitat Use ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Movement Patterns ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Fragmented Habitats ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Range Edge ◽  
Shrub Steppe ◽  
Northern Edge

in Canada, Nuttall’s Cottontails (Sylvilagus nuttallii nuttallii) occur in southcentral British Columbia (BC), where they are federally listed as a species of special Concern due to their presumed small populations and limited distribution in fragmented habitats. Their habitat use and movement patterns are poorly known at this northern edge of their distribution. We used livetrapping, radio-collaring, and fecal pellet surveys to examine Nuttall’s Cottontails’ use of remaining patches of native habitat as well as use of human-impacted areas. Cottontails were present in low densities and only about half of presumably suitable patches of native sagebrush-steppe were occupied. Cottontails were more likely to occur in shrubby habitat, but at a fine scale cottontails used areas that had a lower density of shrubs and finer substrates. movement patterns differed significantly between areas of varying habitat quality, with longer movements in natural habitat. one radio-collared male cottontail used anthropogenic habitats adjacent to native habitat; this use corresponds with landowner reports. However, it is not clear whether Nuttall’s Cottontails are able to use anthropogenically-impacted areas to maintain populations or in areas where such habitats are not near native habitats. our results suggest that these animals are rare and occur primarily in remnant patches of shrub-steppe within BC.

Nocturnally constrained foraging of a lotic minnow (Rhinichthys cataractae)

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 2008-2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Culp
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Diel Periodicity ◽  
Foraging Activity ◽  
Light Levels ◽  
Prey Composition ◽  
Rhinichthys Cataractae ◽  
Nocturnal Foraging ◽  
Gut Fullness ◽  
Foraging Pattern

Diel periodicity in foraging activity of the longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) was determined by measuring dace activity over the stream bed, gut fullness, and the digestive state of prey items. Although most species of minnows are either diurnally or crepuscularly active, dace began foraging within 1 h after sunset with light levels near 10 lx and ceased before sunrise throughout the ice-free period. During the day few prey were taken as the dace remained under the shelter of stones. This nocturnal foraging pattern did not appear to be affected by spawning or seasonal changes in prey composition. Nocturnal foraging in dace is not likely a response to prey availability, but may be a response to avoid diel periods when salmonid competitors or visual predators are active.

Functional Anatomy of the Primary Downstroke Muscles in the Pallid Bat, Antrozous pallidus

1981 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 795 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Hermanson ◽  
J. Scott Altenbach
Keyword(s):  
Functional Anatomy ◽  
Antrozous Pallidus ◽  
Pallid Bat

scholarly journals Adaptive foraging behaviour increases vulnerability to climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Gauzens ◽  
Benjamin Rosenbaum ◽  
Gregor Kalinkat ◽  
Thomas Boy ◽  
Malte Jochum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Species Coexistence ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Trophic Niche ◽  
Feeding Strategies ◽  
Adaptive Foraging

Abstract Adaptative foraging behavior should promote species coexistence and biodiversity under climate change as predators are expected to maximize their energy intake, according to principles of optimal foraging theory. We test these assumptions using a dataset comprising 22,185 stomach contents of fish species across functional groups, feeding strategies, and prey availability in the environment over 12 years. Our results show that foraging shifts from trait-dependent prey selectivity to density dependence in warmer and more productive environments. This behavioral change leads to lower consumption efficiency as species shift away from their optimal trophic niche, undermining species persistence and biodiversity. By integrating this adaptive foraging behavior into dynamic models, our study reveals higher risk profiles for ecosystems under global warming.

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