干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Has the Australian Endemic Grey Falcon the Most Extreme Dietary Specialization among all Falco Species?

Arid

DOI	10.3390/ani12121582
	Has the Australian Endemic Grey Falcon the Most Extreme Dietary Specialization among all Falco Species?
	Schoenjahn, Jonny; Pavey, Chris R.; Walter, Gimme H.
通讯作者	Schoenjahn, J
来源期刊	ANIMALS
ISSN	2076-2615
出版年	2022
卷号	12 期号:12
英文摘要	Simple Summary The diet of an animal is one of the most informative aspects of how it interacts with its environment. A clear understanding of a species' diet is, therefore, crucial for conservation considerations. The Grey Falcon is a rare and threatened raptor, found only in Australia's vast arid and semi-arid zone. Its diet is subject to dispute, therefore, we studied, through direct observation during more than 17 years of fieldwork, the food that these birds ingested. We found that Grey Falcons of all ages fed almost exclusively on birds. No other food type was ever taken with any regularity. Our results suggest strongly that the Grey Falcon, throughout the year, throughout its life, and across its vast distribution, feeds almost exclusively on birds. We compared our results with the diets of the other species in the genus (Falco) and found that the Grey Falcon's diet is the most extreme, more so than the diet of even those falcon species that are commonly considered to take exclusively birds, such as the Peregrine Falcon. Our evolutionary explanation of the unique dietary specialization of the Grey Falcon takes into account aspects of the species' environment and relative prey availability. A clear understanding of a species' diet is crucial in understanding its spatio-temporal dynamics, and is, therefore, pertinent to conservation considerations. The diet of the Grey Falcon (Falco hypoleucos), a rare and threatened predator endemic to the Australian arid and semi-arid zone, is subject to diverging assertions; therefore, we studied its diet through direct observation of food ingestion during more than 17 years of fieldwork across the species' distribution. We found that Grey Falcons of all ages fed almost exclusively on a single type of food, namely, birds, and non-avian food items never constituted a substantial portion of any individual's diet. The extraordinary circumstances that were associated with the ingestion of non-avian food suggest strongly that, across its vast distribution, throughout the year, and throughout its life, the Grey Falcon feeds almost exclusively on birds. Further, we compared the diets of all Falco species and found that the dietary specialization is most extreme in the Grey Falcon, more so than even in the Taita (F. fasciinucha) and Peregrine Falcons (F. peregrinus). Based on aspects of the species' environment and relative prey availability, we offer an evolutionary explanation of the apparently unique dietary specialization of the arid-adapted Grey Falcon.
英文关键词	bird of prey diet Falco hypoleucos food specialist raptor threatened species
类型	Article
语种	英语
开放获取类型	Green Published, gold
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000816650400001
WOS关键词	PEREGRINE FALCONS ; TAITA FALCON ; BEHAVIOR ; HYPOLEUCOS ; STRATEGY ; ECOLOGY ; SUCCESS
WOS类目	Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science ; Veterinary Sciences ; Zoology
WOS研究方向	Agriculture ; Veterinary Sciences ; Zoology
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/391819
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Schoenjahn, Jonny,Pavey, Chris R.,Walter, Gimme H.. Has the Australian Endemic Grey Falcon the Most Extreme Dietary Specialization among all Falco Species?[J],2022,12(12).
APA	Schoenjahn, Jonny,Pavey, Chris R.,&Walter, Gimme H..(2022).Has the Australian Endemic Grey Falcon the Most Extreme Dietary Specialization among all Falco Species?.ANIMALS,12(12).
MLA	Schoenjahn, Jonny,et al."Has the Australian Endemic Grey Falcon the Most Extreme Dietary Specialization among all Falco Species?".ANIMALS 12.12(2022).