Seasonal and inter-annual variation in the feeding ecology of a tropical oceanic seabird, the red-tailed tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda
Seasonal and inter-annual variation in the feeding ecology of a tropical oceanic seabird, the red-tailed tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda
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DOI：
10.3354/meps255289
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发表时间：
2003-06
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
M. Corre;Y. Cherel;F. Lagarde;Hervé Lormée;P. Jouventin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Corre;Y. Cherel;F. Lagarde;Hervé Lormée;P. Jouventin
我们研究了在欧罗巴岛（莫桑比克海峡，印度洋），在连续3个季节的饮食，食物交付给小鸡，小鸡和成年红尾热带鸟的身体状况的量的季节和年际变化。食物包括上层鱼类（13科）和鱿鱼（3科），共32个分类群。三个家庭，鱿鱼Ommastrephidae（主要是Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis）和鱼类Exocoetidae（飞鱼）和Coryphaenidae（鱼），占68%的猎物数量和83%的摄入生物量。猎物的大小和质量有很大的差异，海豚鱼是最大的，鱿鱼是最小的。饮食有重要的季节性变化。在小鸡饲养，41%的质量的食物交付给小鸡包括海豚鱼，而这些鱼只占2%的质量的食物在孵化过程中。鱿鱼在整个繁殖季节捕获的比例相似，但在小鸡饲养较大。我们没有发现任何年际变化的小鸡的饮食，也没有在任何雏鸟或成人的身体状况，这表明在我们的研究过程中，没有发生重大的年际变化的食物供应。但60日龄以下雏鸡的摄食频率和体况存在一定的年际变化。在研究的3个季节之一，摄食频率也有显着的逐日变化。这表明，每天在海洋环境或觅食条件的变化可能会有短期的后果，在食物供应和身体状况的成长小鸡，但这些变化并不一定会导致长期（年际）的变化，在饮食和身体状况的羽翼未丰或成年红尾热带鸟在欧罗巴岛。这些结果表明，在1995年和1997年之间，欧罗巴红尾热带鸟在繁殖时依赖于可预测的和季节性的食物资源。
We studied seasonal and inter-annual variations in the diet, amount of food delivered to chicks, and body condition of chicks and adult red-tailed tropicbird at Europa Island (Mozambique Channel, Indian Ocean), during 3 consecutive seasons. The diet consisted of epipelagic fishes (13 families) and squid (3 families) totalling 32 taxa. Three families, the squid Ommastrephidae (mainly Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis) and the fishes Exocoetidae (flying-fish) and Coryphaenidae (dolphinfish), accounted for 68% of the number of prey and 83% of the ingested biomass. There were considerable differences in size and mass of the prey items, dolphin fish being the largest and squid the smallest. There were important seasonal variations in diet. During chick-rearing, 41% of the mass of food delivered to chicks consisted of dolphin fish, whereas these fish represented only 2% of the mass of food during incubation. The squid were caught in similar proportion throughout the breeding season but were larger during chick rearing. We did not find any inter-annual variation in the diet of chicks, nor in the body condition of either fledglings or adults, suggesting that no major inter-annual changes in food availability occurred during the course of our study. However, there was some interannual variation in feeding frequency and body condition of chicks of less than 60 d. There were also significant day-to-day variations in the feeding frequency in one of the 3 seasons studied. This suggests that day-to-day variation in the marine environment or in foraging conditions may have shortterm consequences in the food provisioning and body condition of growing chicks, but that these variations do not necessarily result in long-term (inter-annual) variations in diet and body condition of fledgling or adult red-tailed tropicbirds at Europa island. These results suggest that between 1995 and 1997, red-tailed tropicbirds of Europa relied on predictable and seasonal food resources when breeding.