Availability of food and abundance of Ortalis canicollis during the dry season in Southern Pantanal forests, Brazil

Authors

  • Luciana Vieira de Paiva Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido – UFERSA, Mossoró, RN, Brasil, 59625-900
  • José Ragusa-Netto Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Campus Universitário de Três Lagoas, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS, Três Lagoas, MS, Brasil, 79620-080
  • Leonardo Fernandes França Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido – UFERSA, Mossoró, RN, Brasil, 59625-900

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/nbc.2013.81.05

Abstract

Frugivorous birds may respond to the seasonal variation of food resources either by temporarily changing their diet and/or by moving between areas with different spatial-temporal fruit availability. The Pantanal is a highly suitable ecosystem for evaluating both of these strategies, due to the seasonal availability of plant food resources in sites such as forest patches and gallery forest. In the present study, we investigated the abundance and the feeding habits of Ortalis canicollis (Wagler, 1830) during the dry season in two habitat types in the Southern Pantanal. The study was carried out between April and November 2002. We sampled the availability of fruits and flowers of nine tree species (149 individuals). The monthly abundance of O. canicollis was evaluated by means of an abundance index (15 points per environment), and food consumption was recorded through direct observation. In both environments, flowers were more abundant from the middle to end of the dry season. However, in the gallery forest fruits predominated from the beginning to the middle of the dry season, while they were often produced in the forest patches during the dry season. In both areas, O. canicollis occurred throughout the entire study. The local variations of O. canicollis abundance potentially resulted from the availability of their food resources because oscillations in O. canicollis food resources use overlapped both the fruiting and flowering patterns in both sites. The generalist feeding habits of O. canicollis, at least in part, may explain their persistence in forest habitats of southern Pantanal in the harshest period of the year.

Key words: Chaco chachalaca, birds, cracidae, phenology, frugivory.

Author Biographies

Luciana Vieira de Paiva, Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido – UFERSA, Mossoró, RN, Brasil, 59625-900

José Ragusa-Netto, Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Campus Universitário de Três Lagoas, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS, Três Lagoas, MS, Brasil, 79620-080

Leonardo Fernandes França, Departamento de Ciências Animais, Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido – UFERSA, Mossoró, RN, Brasil, 59625-900

Downloads

Published

2013-03-27

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2013): January/April

Section

Articles

License

I grant the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation the first publication of my article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license (which allows sharing of work, recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal).

I confirm that my article is not being submitted to another publication and has not been published in its entirely on another journal. I take full responsibility for its originality and I will also claim responsibility for charges from claims by third parties concerning the authorship of the article.

I also agree that the manuscript will be submitted according to the journal’s publication rules described above.