A comparative laboratory study of the preservation of different rodent bones in pellets of StrigiformesстатьяИсследовательская статья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 10 августа 2018 г.
Аннотация:Studies of variation in preservation of different skeletal elements in the pellets of birds of prey helps us understand which bones should be used for effective and reliable diet analyses.
The preservation of cranial and postcranial elements of skeletons of laboratory mice
was studied in owl pellets. The research was conducted with three male individuals of
three species: Long-eared Owl, Tawny Owl and Pygmy Owl. The owls were fed with
adult and immaturemice in laboratory conditions. The preservation of boneswas defined
as the ratio of the number of whole specimens of a certain bone to the total number of
bones which were contained in the body of one mouse. The largest and the most massive
bones had a high preservation. The upper part of cranium and the large bones of limb girdles
had the highest preservation in the owl pellets. The skeletal elements of adult mice
had the highest preservation in the pellets of Long-eared Owl. The bones of immature
mice had higher preservation in the pellets of Pygmy Owl compared to Long-eared and
Tawny Owl. Age differences in bone size and thickness were explained the variation in
preservation of immature and adult mouse bones. Based on literature and our own data,
we consider that prey identification methods based on cranial and postcranial elements
complement each other.We therefore advise to use both elements together for maximum
reliability of estimations of species composition and the number of prey based on pellet
analysis.