Food spectrum of the feral cat (Felis catus L., 1758) in the juniper woodland on El Hierro (Canary Islands)
The diet of feral cats inhabiting a juniper woodland on the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands) has been studied by analyzing 248 scats. A total of 1029 prey items have been identified indicating that the introduced mammals (Oryctolagus cuniculus, Mus sp. and Rattus sp.) constitute the basis of the...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 1988 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/22239 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/22239 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Diet Felis catus juniper woodland Canary Islands |
| Resumo: | The diet of feral cats inhabiting a juniper woodland on the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands) has been studied by analyzing 248 scats. A total of 1029 prey items have been identified indicating that the introduced mammals (Oryctolagus cuniculus, Mus sp. and Rattus sp.) constitute the basis of the diet appearing in 88.3 % of the samples and representing 85.4 % of the consumed biomass. Mus sp. is the most frequently captured prey but in terms of biomass.Mus sp. is the most frequently captured prey but in terms of biomass, Oryctolagus cuniculus is the fundamental bais of the diet as has similarly been found in other areas studied. Birds can be regarded as alternative prey resources of some importance though they only account for 8 % of the biomass withCory's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), contributing practically half this value. Reptiles appear in 44.3 % of the seats but only represent 5.9 % of the biomass, Gallotia galloti caesaris being the most frequentlycaptured species (64.1 %). Insects, (mainly Orthoptera & Coleoptera), despite their high frequency of apparition (45.5 % of seat groups), are insignificant due to their small sizc, though worthy of note is the large number of larvas of Pimelia laevigata. |
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