INVESTIGADORES
LAMBERTUCCI Sergio Agustin
artículos
Título:
Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
Autor/es:
BALLEJO, F; LAMBERTUCCI SERGIO A; TREJO A.; DE SANTIS, L.
Revista:
BIRD CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL
Editorial:
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Referencias:
Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2018
ISSN:
0959-2709
Resumen:
Animals that share resources tend to use different foraging strategies in order to decrease potential competition. Scavenging birds using the same nutritional resources can segregate into different space and time scales. However it has been suggested that when the species do not co-evolve to achieve such segregation competition may result. Our aim was to study the trophic niche overlap between three species of obligate scavengers,the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus),the Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)and the American Black vulture (Coragypsatratus), which are the main avian consumers of carcasses in northwesternPatagonia. Black vultures have arrived in the area relatively recently; haveexpanded their distribution following human activities, and have been suggested to compete with the threatened condor. We collected pellets in communal roost of the three species to determine their diet, and to estimate the diversity (Shannon Index) and diet similarity (Pianka overlap index). We found that the Turkey vulture has greater niche breath and, apart from domestic livestock, it incorporates smaller items as fish, reptiles and a great number of birds,carnivores and mice. Although the Black vulture diet includes arthropods, they feedprimarily on introduced ungulates, overlapping more with condor diet when roosting far from urban centers. As these latter two species share the same resource, human activities that positively affect the abundances of the Black vulture could increase competition among them, with the possible implications that this has for the conservation of the Andean condor.