Avian herbivory: An experiment, a field test, and an allometric comparison with mammals

Ecology

Volumn 88, Issue 11, 2007, Pages 2926-2935

  Van Gils, Jan A ^a,b,c   Gyimesi, Abel ^a   Van Lith, Bart ^a  

^a NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE OF ECOLOGY NIOO KNAW   (Netherlands)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL   (United Kingdom)

^c ROYAL NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SEA RESEARCH   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Allometry; Bewick's Swan; Bite size; Chewing; Cropping; Cygnus columbianus bewickii; Foraging; Functional response; Grazing; Handling time; Herbivory; Intake rate

Indexed keywords

ALLOMETRY; COMPARATIVE STUDY; ECOLOGICAL MODELING; EXPERIMENTAL STUDY; FORAGING BEHAVIOR; FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE; HERBIVORY; MAMMAL; TESTING METHOD; WATERFOWL;

AVES; CYGNUS; CYGNUS COLUMBIANUS BEWICKII; MAMMALIA;

ANIMAL; ARTICLE; BIOLOGICAL MODEL; CALORIC INTAKE; COMPARATIVE STUDY; DUCKS AND GEESE; EATING; FEEDING BEHAVIOR; MAMMAL; PHYSIOLOGY; TIME;

ANIMALS; ANSERIFORMES; EATING; ENERGY INTAKE; FEEDING BEHAVIOR; MAMMALS; MODELS, BIOLOGICAL; TIME FACTORS;

EID: 38449093256     PISSN: 00129658     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/06-0904.1     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Agnew, R. E., R. S. Park, C. S. Mayne, and A. S. Laidlaw. 2004. Potential of near infrared spectroscopy to predict the voluntary intake of grazed grass. Animal Feed Science and Technology 115:169-178.
2. Augustine, D. J., L. E. Frelich, and P. A. Jordan. 1998. Evidence for two alternate stable states in an ungulate grazing system. Ecological Applications 8:1260-1269.
3. Bédard, J., and G. Gauthier. 1986. Assessment of faecal output in geese. Journal of Applied Ecology 23:77-90.
4. Bergman, C. M., J. M. Fryxell, C. C. Gates, and D. Fortin. 2001. Ungulate foraging strategies: Energy maximizing or time minimizing? Journal of Animal Ecology 70:289-300.
5. Bos, D., J. van de Koppel, and F. J. Weissing. 2004. Dark-bellied Brent geese aggregate to cope with increased levels of primary production. Oikos 107:485-496.
6. Bradbury, J. W., S. L. Vehrencamp, K. E. Clifton, and L. M. Clifton. 1996. The relationship between bite rate and local forage abundance in wild Thomson's gazelles. Ecology 77:2237-2255.
7. Burnham, K. P., and D. R. Anderson. 1998. Model selection and inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA.
8. Charman, K. 1979. Feeding ecology and energetics of the dark-bellied Brent goose (Branta bernicla bernicla) in Essex and Kent. Pages 451-465 in R. L. Jefferies and A. Davies, editors. Ecological processes in coastal environments. Blackwood, London, UK.
9. Cope, D. R., M. J. J. E. Loonen, J. M. Rowcliffe, and R. A. Pettifor. 2005. Larger barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) are more efficient feeders: a possible mechanism for observed body size-fitness relationships. Journal of Zoology 265:37-42.
10. Druzinsky, R. E. 1993. The time allometry of mammalian chewing movements: chewing frequency scales with body mass in mammals. Journal of Theoretical Biology 160:427-440.
11. Dudley, R., and G. J. Vermeij. 1992. Do the power requirements of flapping flight constrain folivory in flying animals? Functional Ecology 6:101-104.
12. Durant, D. 2003. The digestion of fibre in herbivorous Anatidae - a review. Wildfowl 54:7-24.
13. Durant, D., and H. Fritz. 2005. Variation of pecking rate with sward height in wild wigeon Anas penelope. Journal of Ornithology 147:367-370.
14. Durant, D., H. Fritz, S. Blais, and P. Duncan. 2003. The functional response in three species of herbivorous Anatidae: effects of sward height, body mass and bill size. Journal of Animal Ecology 72:220-231.
15. Ginnett, T. F., and M. W. Demment. 1995. The functional response of herbivores - analysis and test of a simple mechanistic model. Functional Ecology 9:376-384.
16. Grajal, A. 1995. Digestive efficiency of the hoatzin, Opisthocomus hoazin - a folivorous bird with foregut fermentation. Ibis 137:383-388.
17. Gross, J. E., L. A. Shipley, N. T. Hobbs, D. E. Spalinger, and B. A. Wunder. 1993. Functional response of herbivores in food-concentrated patches: tests of a mechanistic model. Ecology 74:778-791.
18. Hassall, M., R. Riddington, and A. Helden. 2001. Foraging behaviour of Brent geese, Branta b. bernicla, on grasslands: effects of sward length and nitrogen content. Oecologia 127:97-104.
19. Hewitt, D. G., and R. L. Kirkpatrick. 1996. Forage intake rates of ruffed grouse and potential effects on grouse density. Canadian Journal of Zoology 74:2016-2024.
20. Hobbs, N. T., J. E. Gross, L. A. Shipley, D. E. Spalinger, and B. A. Wunder. 2003. Herbivore functional response in heterogeneous environments: a contest among models. Ecology 84:666-681.
21. Holling, C. S. 1959. Some characteristics of simple types of predation and parasitism. Canadian Entomologist 91:385-398.
22. Holling, C. S. 1965. The functional response of predators to prey density and its role in mimicry and population regulation. Memoires of the Entomological Society of Canada 45:3-60.
23. Holling, C. S. 1966. The functional response of invertebrate predators to prey density. Memoires of the Entomological Society of Canada 48:1-86.
24. Illius, A. W., P. Duncan, C. Richard, and P. Mesochina. 2002. Mechanisms of functional response and resource exploitation in browsing roe deer. Journal of Animal Ecology 71:723-734.
25. Illius, A. W., and I. J. Gordon. 1987. The allometry of food intake in grazing ruminants. Journal of Animal Ecology 56:989-999.
26. Jacobsen, O. W. 1992. Factors affecting selection of nitrogen-fertilized grassland areas by breeding wigeon Anas penelope. Ornis Scandinavica 23:121-131.
27. Jeschke, J. M., M. Kopp, and R. Tollrian. 2002. Predator functional responses: discriminating between handling and digesting prey. Ecological Monographs 72:95-112.
28. Jeschke, J. M., and R. Tollrian. 2005. Predicting herbivore feeding times. Ethology 111:187-206.
29. Karasov, W. H. 1990. Digestion in birds: chemical and physiological determinants and ecological implications. Studies in Avian Biology 13:391-415.
30. Kohlmann, S. G., J. H. Matis, and K. L. Risenhoover. 1999. Estimating handling times for herbivore diets: a statistical method using the gamma distribution. Journal of Animal Ecology 68:638-645.
31. Lang, A., and J. M. Black. 2001. Foraging efficiency in Barnacle geese Branta leucopsis: a functional response to sward height and an analysis of sources of individual variation. Wildfowl 52:7-20.
32. Lang, A., A. I. Houston, J. M. Black, R. A. Pettifor, and J. Prop. 1998. From individual feeding performance to predicting population dynamics in barnacle geese: the spring staging model. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 200:203-211.
33. Martin, P., and P. Bateson. 1993. Measuring behaviour: an introductory guide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
34. Nagy, K. A. 2005. Field metabolic rate and body size. Journal of Experimental Biology 208:1621-1625.
35. Noldus Information Technology. 1997. The Observer: support package for video analysis. Reference manual. Version 4.0 for Windows edition. Noldus Information Technology, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
36. Nolet, B. A., O. Langevoord, R. M. Bevan, K. R. Engelaar, M. Klaassen, R. J. W. Mulder, and S. van Dijk. 2001. Spatial variation in tuber depletion by swans explained by differences in net intake rates. Ecology 82:1655-1667.
37. Owen, M., R. L. Wells, and J. M. Black. 1992. Energy budgets of wintering barnacle geese: the effects of declining food resources. Ornis Scandinavica 23:451-458.
38. Pettifor, R. A., R. W. G. Caldow, J. M. Rowcliffe, J. D. Goss-Custard, J. M. Black, K. H. Hodder, A. I. Houston, A. Lang, and J. Webb. 2000. Spatially explicit, individual-based, behavioural models of the annual cycle of two migratory goose populations. Journal of Applied Ecology 37:s103-135.
39. Piersma, T., J. van Gils, P. de Goeij, and J. van der Meer. 1995. Holling's functional response model as a tool to link the food-finding mechanism of a probing shorebird with its spatial distribution. Journal of Animal Ecology 64:493-504.
40. Prop, J. 1991. Food exploitation patterns by brent geese during spring staging. Ardea 79:331-342.
41. Prop, J., and T. Vulink. 1992. Digestion by barnacle geese in the annual cycle: the interplay between retention time and food quality. Functional Ecology 6:180-189.
42. R Development Core Team. 2005. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
43. Searle, K. R., T. Vandervelde, N. T. Hobbs, and L. A. Shipley. 2005. Gain functions for large herbivores: tests of alternative models. Journal of Animal Ecology 74:181-189.
44. Shipley, L. A., J. E. Gross, D. E. Spalinger, N. T. Hobbs, and B. A. Wunder. 1994. The scaling of intake rate in mammalian herbivores. American Naturalist 143:1055-1082.
45. Shipley, L. A., D. E. Spalinger, J. E. Gross, N. T. Hobbs, and B. A. Wunder. 1996. The dynamics and scaling of foraging velocity and encounter rate in mammalian herbivores. Functional Ecology 10:234-244.
46. Spalinger, D. E., and N. T. Hobbs. 1992. Mechanisms of foraging in mammalian herbivores: new models of functional response. American Naturalist 140:325-348.
47. SYSTAT Software. 2000. SYSTAT. Version 10. SYSTAT Software, Point Richmond, California, USA.
48. Therkildsen, O. R., and J. Madsen. 2000. Assessment of food intake rates in pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus based on examination of oesophagus contents. Wildlife Biology 6:167-172.
49. Ungar, E. D. 1996. Ingestive behaviour. Pages 185-218 in J. Hodgson and A. W. Illius, editors. The ecology and management of grazing systems. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
50. Van der Graaf, A. J., P. Coehoorn, and J. Stahl. 2005. Sward height and bite size affect the functional response of barnacle geese Branta leucopsis. Journal of Ornithology 147:479-484.
51. Van der Leeuw, A. H. J., K. Kurk, P. C. Snelderwaard, R. G. Bout, and H. Berkhoudt. 2003. Conflicting demands on the trophic system of Anseriformes and their evolutionary implications. Animal Biology 53:259-301.
52. Vandermeer, J. H., and D. E. Goldberg. 2003. Population ecology: first principles. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
53. Van der Wal, R., J. van de Koppel, and M. Sagel. 1998. On the relation between herbivore foraging efficiency and plant standing crop: an experiment with barnacle geese. Oikos 82:123-130.
54. Van Gils, J. A., V. J. Munster, R. Radersma, D. Liefhebber, R. A. M. Fouchier, and M. Klaassen. 2007. Hampered foraging and migratory performance in swans infected with low-pathogenic avian influenza A virus. PLoS ONE 2(1):e184.
55. Van Soest, P. J. 1982. Nutritional ecology of the ruminant. O and B Books, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.