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23 results for “food provisioning”
Data from: Food supplementing peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus tundrius) nests increases reproductive success without changes in parental mean provisioning rate
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Contributions of wild and provisioned foods to the diets of domestic cats that depredate wild animals
<p>Predation of wildlife by domestic cats <i>Felis catus</i> presents a threat to biodiversity conservation in some ecological contexts. The proportions of wild prey captured and eaten by domestic cats and thus the contributions of wild prey to cat diets are hard to quantify. This limits understanding of any impacts of cats may have on wild animal populations and confounds analyses of the effects of interventions aimed at reducing wildlife killing.</p> <p>We used stable isotope analyses to quantify the relative contributions of wild and provisioned foods to the diets of domestic cats kept as companion animals and which frequently captured wild prey. We tested the effects of treatments aimed at reducing killing upon stable isotope ratios of cat whiskers and, where treatments had significant effects, we estimated variation in the contributions of wild prey to cats' diets before and during treatment. We evaluated bells, Birdsbesafe collar covers, provision of food in a 'puzzle feeder', provision of food in which meat was the principal source of protein, object play and a control group.</p> <p><span>As expected, cat diets consisted primarily of provisioned foods, though the contribution of wild animals to the diets of these cats, all of which regularly caught wild animals, was low (cat food ~96%, wild animals ~3</span>–<span>4%). Compared to the pre-treatment period and control group, cats with a Birdsbesafe collar cover, exhibited significant reduction in nitrogen stable isotope ratios in their whiskers and consumed less wild prey, most likely attributable to effective inhibition of hunting, particularly for birds. Fitting cats with a Birdsbesafe collar cover, therefore, reduced both returns of wild birds and consumption of wild prey.</span></p> <p><span>While multiple interventions can significantly affect the numbers of wild animals that cats capture and return home, the remarkably small dietary contributions made by wild animal prey mean dietary change is harder to discern. Domestic cats rely almost exclusively on food provided by people even when they frequently kill wild animals. This suggests that the hunting behavior of domestic cats may be driven by behavioral motivations, or by a need to address micronutrient requirements, but is unlikely to alter macronutrient intake.</span></p>
Contributions of wild and provisioned foods to the diets of domestic cats that depredate wild animals
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Provision of high meat content food and object play reduce predation of wild animals by domestic cats Felis catus
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Data from: Extra food provisioning reduces extra-pair paternity in the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni)
<p><span>Female promiscuity can function to acquire both direct and indirect benefits from their social mate and extra-pair males. In many raptor species, intense mate-feeding significantly contributes to female energy requirements before and during egg laying. Moreover, females may use mate-feeding effort to assess male quality. In this study of the lesser kestrel (<i>Falco naumanni</i>), we aimed at experimentally manipulating the female's perception of mate quality by providing females with extra food during egg laying, and evaluated the occurrence of extra-pair paternity in food-supplemented and control broods by parentage analyses. No extra-pair offspring (EPO) was found among 19 food-supplemented broods, whereas EPO occurred in five out of 17 control broods. No significant differences in morphological traits, body condition and reproductive success were found between faithful and unfaithful females. However, clutches containing EPO were laid later in the breeding season. Moreover, un-cuckolded males had longer tarsi than cuckolded ones, indicating larger body size. Hence, extra food provisioning and early breeding reduced the occurrence of EPO in lesser kestrels. In addition, we confirmed the occurrence of intraspecific brood parasitism, as five nestlings were not the offspring of the brooding female. The results of our food-provisioning experiment support the idea that mate-feeding ability is a reliable indicator of male quality, and are in accordance with the hypothesis that male mate-feeding behaviour is a sexually selected trait.</span></p>
Data from: Food and habitat provisions jointly determine competitive and facilitative interactions among distantly related herbivores
1. Interactions between distantly related herbivores exert powerful influences on ecosystems, but most studies to date have only considered unidirectional effects. Few have simultaneously examined the mutual effects that vertebrate herbivores and insect herbivores have on one another. 2. We conducted a set of manipulative experiments to evaluate the potential competition and facilitation between two pairs of distantly related herbivore taxa: an insect caterpillar (Gynaephora alpherakii) and two large vertebrate herbivores, yak (Bos grunniens) and Tibetan sheep (Ovis aries tibetica). 3. We found that these large herbivores consistently increased the density of caterpillars likely by improving the habitat for caterpillars. The caterpillars, in turn, decreased yak but increased Tibetan sheep foraging time and intake bites by differently changing available food resources of the two large herbivores. Diet preferences of herbivores modified the habitat and food resources, thereby causing a diet-mediated competition between yak and caterpillars, and facilitation between sheep and caterpillars. The vertebrate herbivores non-feeding upon Lamiophlomis rotata and Gentiana straminea, the caterpillars preferred habitat, increased densities of the two plant species, thus favoring the caterpillars. In turn, the caterpillar preference for Kobresia pygmaea, significantly reduced food resources for yak, while promoted food resources (multiple forbs) for sheep. 4. Synthesis. Our study indicates that two different mechanisms (the changes in habitat and food availability) induced by herbivore foraging jointly determine competitive and facilitative interactions between distantly related herbivore species. We also suggest that examining the bidirectional effects between herbivores offers a better understanding of competition and facilitation in terrestrial animal communities.
Data from: Effects of winter food provisioning on the phenotypes of breeding blue tits
Throughout the Western World huge numbers of people regularly supply food for wild birds. However, evidence of negative impacts of winter feeding on future reproduction has highlighted a need to improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms shaping avian responses to supplementary food. Here, we test the possibility that carry-over effects are mediated via their impact on the phenotypes of breeding birds, either by influencing the phenotypic structure of populations through changes in winter survival and/or by more direct effects on the condition of breeding birds. Using a landscape-scale three-year study of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), we demonstrate the importance of nutritional composition of supplementary food in determining carry-over effect outcomes. We show that breeding populations which had access to vitamin E-rich foods during the previous winter were comprised of individuals with reduced feather carotenoid concentrations, indicative of lower pre-feeding phenotypic condition, compared to fat-fed and unfed populations. This suggests that supplementary feeding in winter can result in altered population phenotypic structure at the time of breeding, perhaps by enhancing survival and recruitment of lower quality individuals. However, supplementation of a fat-rich diet during winter was detrimental to the oxidative state of breeding birds, with these phenotypic differences ultimately found to impact upon reproductive success. Our findings demonstrate the complex nature by which supplementary feeding can influence wild bird populations.
Essential amino acid requirements of granivorous and omnivorous songbirds and the provision of natural foods
<p>Wild birds must consume certain amounts of protein and an appropriate balance of amino acids while inhabiting environments where foods often differ in the quantity and quality of available protein. The requirements for amino acids are well documented for domestic bird species but are largely unknown for wild birds, which makes it impossible to reliably assess the nutritional adequacy of foods eaten by wild birds. We measured the maintenance requirements for three essential amino acids (lysine, methionine, and arginine) in two species of songbird, the omnivorous Hermit Thrush (<i>Catharus guttatus</i>) and granivorous White-throated Sparrow (<i>Zonotrichia albicollis</i>). Hermit Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows had similar requirements for lysine (20.02 and 19.95 mg/day, respectively) and methionine (12.3 and 10.85 mg/day, respectively), whereas thrushes had lower requirements for arginine (18.07 mg/day) compared to sparrows (34.5 mg/day). Consistent with previous studies, most birds fed diets with inadequate essential amino acid concentrations reduced food intake and fecal output, lost body mass, and had lower, but not negative nitrogen balance. However, we provide the first evidence that songbirds overcompensate when they consume diets very deficient in lysine. Available data on amino acid concentrations in natural foods suggests that most insects contain relatively high concentrations of all essential amino acids, seeds likely satisfy requirements of lysine and arginine but not methionine for Hermit Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows, whereas fruits generally contain inadequate amounts of all essential amino acids. Therefore, birds that eat mostly fruit may consume enough protein but likely must eat other types of foods to satisfy their essential amino acid requirements.</p>
Data from: Table scraps: inter-trophic food provisioning by pumas
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Data from: Effects of winter food provisioning on the phenotypes of breeding blue tits
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Essential amino acid requirements of granivorous and omnivorous songbirds and the provision of natural foods
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Data from: Extra food provisioning reduces extra-pair paternity in the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni)
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Data from: Food and habitat provisions jointly determine competitive and facilitative interactions among distantly related herbivores
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Data from: Offspring dynamics affect food provisioning, growth and mortality in a brood-caring spider
In brood-caring species, family members are faced with a conflict over resource distribution. While parents are selected to adapt the amount of care according to their offspring's needs, offspring might be selected to demand more care than optimal for parents. Recent studies on birds have shown that the social network structure of offspring affects the amount of care and thus the fitness of families. Such a network structure of repeated interactions is probably influenced by within-brood relatedness. We experimentally manipulated the group composition in a brood-caring spider to test how the presence of unrelated spiderlings affects the dynamics between female and brood as well as within broods. Broods consisting of siblings grew better and had a lower mortality compared with mixed broods, no matter whether the caring female was a genetic or foster mother. Interestingly, we found that foster mothers lost weight when caring for sibling broods, whereas females caring for mixed broods gained weight. This indicates that females may be willing to share more prey when the brood contains exclusively siblings even if the entire brood is unrelated to the female. Resource distribution may thus be negotiated by offspring dynamics that could have a signalling function to females.
Data from: Food provisioning alters infection dynamics in populations of a wild rodent
While pathogens are often assumed to limit the growth of wildlife populations, experimental evidence for their effects is rare. A lack of food resources has been suggested to enhance the negative effects of pathogen infection on host populations, but this theory has received little investigation. We conducted a replicated two-factor enclosure experiment, with introduction of the bacterium Bordetella bronchiseptica and food supplementation, to evaluate the individual and interactive effects of pathogen infection and food availability on vole populations during a boreal winter. We show that prior to bacteria introduction, vole populations were limited by food availability. Bordetella bronchiseptica introduction then reduced population growth and abundance, but contrary to predictions, primarily in food supplemented populations. Infection prevalence and pathological changes in vole lungs were most common in food supplemented populations, and are likely to have resulted from increased congregation and bacteria transmission around feeding stations. Bordetella bronchiseptica-infected lungs often showed protozoan co-infection (consistent with Hepatozoon erhardovae), together with more severe inflammatory changes. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this study demonstrates a complex picture of interactions and underlying mechanisms, leading to population-level effects. Our results highlight the potential for food provisioning to markedly influence disease processes in wildlife mammal populations.
Data for: Negative effects of agricultural intensification on the food provisioning rate of a declining aerial insectivore
<p>The historical rise of intensive agricultural practices is hypothesized to be related to declines of grassland and aerial insectivorous birds. Drivers of declines may also influence the overall abundance and spatial distribution of insects within agricultural landscapes. Subsequently, the food provisioning rate of birds breeding within more agro-intensive landscapes may be impacted. Lower provisioning rates in agro-intensive landscapes may lead to reduced growth rate, body condition or fledging success of nestlings but also to diminished body condition of food provisioning adults. Results from a previous study supported this hypothesis as the fledging success and proxies of nestling body condition were lowest for an aerial insectivore breeding in more agro intensive landscapes. Of the multiple hypotheses put forward to explain these correlations, one mechanism may act through variation in food provisioning rates. In this study, we expounded on this hypothesis using data derived from the aforementioned study system and assessed if provisioning rates to nestlings and food provisioning behavior of adults varied across a gradient of agricultural intensification in a declining aerial insectivore, the Tree Swallow (<em>Tachycineta bicolor)</em>. We found that the hourly provisioning rate was lower in agro-intensive landscapes, and yet travel distances were longest within less agro-intensive landscapes. Our results highlight that, in order to maximize long term average gain rates, Tree Swallows breeding within agro-intensive landscapes must forage with greater intensity, perhaps at a cost to themselves, or else costs will transfer to growing broods. Our work provides further evidence that agricultural intensification on the breeding grounds can contribute to the declines of aerial insectivores in part through a trophic pathway.</p>
Provision of Small vs. Large Portion Sizes and Later Food Intake
ClinicalTrials.gov study NCT03241576. IPD Sharing: YES. Countries: 0. Publications: 1.
Data from: Food provisioning alters infection dynamics in populations of a wild rodent
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Data from: Offspring dynamics affect food provisioning, growth and mortality in a brood-caring spider
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Data for: Negative effects of agricultural intensification on the food provisioning rate of a declining aerial insectivore
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