Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis

Autores
Ballejo, Fernando; Lambertucci, Sergio A.; Trejo, Ana; De Santis, Luciano José María
Año de publicación
2018
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Animals that share resources tend to use different foraging strategies in order to decrease potential competition. Scavenging birds using the same nutritional resources can segregate into different space and time scales. However, it has been suggested that when the species do not co-evolve to achieve such segregation competition may result. Our aim was to study the trophic niche overlap between three species of obligate scavengers, the Andean Condor Vultur gryphus, Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura and American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus, which are the main avian consumers of carcasses in north-western Patagonia. Black Vultures arrived in the area relatively recently, have expanded their distribution following human activities, and have been suggested to compete with the threatened condor. We collected pellets in communal roosts of the three species to determine their diet, and to estimate the diversity (Shannon Index) and diet similarity (Pianka overlap index). We found that the Turkey Vulture has greater niche breadth and, apart from domestic livestock, it incorporates smaller items such as fish, reptiles and a great number of birds, carnivores and mice. Although the Black Vulture diet includes arthropods, they feed primarily on introduced ungulates, overlapping more with condor diet when roosting far from urban centres. As these latter two species share the same food resource, human activities that positively affect the abundance of the Black Vulture could increase competition among them, with possible implications for the conservation of the Andean Condor.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
Materia
Ciencias Naturales
Patagonia
condor-vulture
competition
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/108967

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spelling Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesisBallejo, FernandoLambertucci, Sergio A.Trejo, AnaDe Santis, Luciano José MaríaCiencias NaturalesPatagoniacondor-vulturecompetitionAnimals that share resources tend to use different foraging strategies in order to decrease potential competition. Scavenging birds using the same nutritional resources can segregate into different space and time scales. However, it has been suggested that when the species do not co-evolve to achieve such segregation competition may result. Our aim was to study the trophic niche overlap between three species of obligate scavengers, the Andean Condor <i>Vultur gryphus</i>, Turkey Vulture <i>Cathartes aura</i> and American Black Vulture <i>Coragyps atratus</i>, which are the main avian consumers of carcasses in north-western Patagonia. Black Vultures arrived in the area relatively recently, have expanded their distribution following human activities, and have been suggested to compete with the threatened condor. We collected pellets in communal roosts of the three species to determine their diet, and to estimate the diversity (Shannon Index) and diet similarity (Pianka overlap index). We found that the Turkey Vulture has greater niche breadth and, apart from domestic livestock, it incorporates smaller items such as fish, reptiles and a great number of birds, carnivores and mice. Although the Black Vulture diet includes arthropods, they feed primarily on introduced ungulates, overlapping more with condor diet when roosting far from urban centres. As these latter two species share the same food resource, human activities that positively affect the abundance of the Black Vulture could increase competition among them, with possible implications for the conservation of the Andean Condor.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo2018info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdf390-402http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/108967enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/trophic-niche-overlap-among-scavengers-in-patagonia-supports-the-condorvulture-competition-hypothesis/4E38EC0C0293A5034AB47AFECB623421info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1474-0001info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1017/S0959270917000211info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-03T10:56:53Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/108967Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-03 10:56:53.299SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
title Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
spellingShingle Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
Ballejo, Fernando
Ciencias Naturales
Patagonia
condor-vulture
competition
title_short Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
title_full Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
title_fullStr Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
title_full_unstemmed Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
title_sort Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ballejo, Fernando
Lambertucci, Sergio A.
Trejo, Ana
De Santis, Luciano José María
author Ballejo, Fernando
author_facet Ballejo, Fernando
Lambertucci, Sergio A.
Trejo, Ana
De Santis, Luciano José María
author_role author
author2 Lambertucci, Sergio A.
Trejo, Ana
De Santis, Luciano José María
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Naturales
Patagonia
condor-vulture
competition
topic Ciencias Naturales
Patagonia
condor-vulture
competition
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Animals that share resources tend to use different foraging strategies in order to decrease potential competition. Scavenging birds using the same nutritional resources can segregate into different space and time scales. However, it has been suggested that when the species do not co-evolve to achieve such segregation competition may result. Our aim was to study the trophic niche overlap between three species of obligate scavengers, the Andean Condor <i>Vultur gryphus</i>, Turkey Vulture <i>Cathartes aura</i> and American Black Vulture <i>Coragyps atratus</i>, which are the main avian consumers of carcasses in north-western Patagonia. Black Vultures arrived in the area relatively recently, have expanded their distribution following human activities, and have been suggested to compete with the threatened condor. We collected pellets in communal roosts of the three species to determine their diet, and to estimate the diversity (Shannon Index) and diet similarity (Pianka overlap index). We found that the Turkey Vulture has greater niche breadth and, apart from domestic livestock, it incorporates smaller items such as fish, reptiles and a great number of birds, carnivores and mice. Although the Black Vulture diet includes arthropods, they feed primarily on introduced ungulates, overlapping more with condor diet when roosting far from urban centres. As these latter two species share the same food resource, human activities that positively affect the abundance of the Black Vulture could increase competition among them, with possible implications for the conservation of the Andean Condor.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
description Animals that share resources tend to use different foraging strategies in order to decrease potential competition. Scavenging birds using the same nutritional resources can segregate into different space and time scales. However, it has been suggested that when the species do not co-evolve to achieve such segregation competition may result. Our aim was to study the trophic niche overlap between three species of obligate scavengers, the Andean Condor <i>Vultur gryphus</i>, Turkey Vulture <i>Cathartes aura</i> and American Black Vulture <i>Coragyps atratus</i>, which are the main avian consumers of carcasses in north-western Patagonia. Black Vultures arrived in the area relatively recently, have expanded their distribution following human activities, and have been suggested to compete with the threatened condor. We collected pellets in communal roosts of the three species to determine their diet, and to estimate the diversity (Shannon Index) and diet similarity (Pianka overlap index). We found that the Turkey Vulture has greater niche breadth and, apart from domestic livestock, it incorporates smaller items such as fish, reptiles and a great number of birds, carnivores and mice. Although the Black Vulture diet includes arthropods, they feed primarily on introduced ungulates, overlapping more with condor diet when roosting far from urban centres. As these latter two species share the same food resource, human activities that positively affect the abundance of the Black Vulture could increase competition among them, with possible implications for the conservation of the Andean Condor.
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018
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info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1474-0001
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1017/S0959270917000211
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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