首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
   检索      


Comparative analyses on food habits of Japanese marten,Siberian weasel and leopard cat in the Tsushima islands,Japan
Authors:Masaya Tatara  Teruo Doi
Institution:(1) Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University 33, 812 Fukuoka, Japan
Abstract:Food habits of three sympatric carnivore mammals in the Tsushima islands of Japan were studied during 1986–91. Scats of the Tsushima marten (n=1236), the Siberian weasel (n=218) and the Tsushima leopard cat (n=350) were collected monthly and the food items were determined by scat contents analysis. Marten was omnivorous showing a high level of diversity of food throughout the year. The important foods for marten were fruits and berries from spring to autumn, insects in summer and autumn and small mammals all year round. Leopard cat preferred to hunt wood/mice and birds, and remained a flesh meat specialist throughout the year. Weasel was intermediate between marten and leopard cat, but was slightly biased towards the flesh meat eater. The three carnivores do not compete against one another for food, except for small rodents. A conflict for food between leopard cat and weasel was suggested to be more intense than that of other combinations based on diet overlapping. Marten may be characterized as an opportunistic generalist. When interspecific competitors existed, or human disturbance to the habitat occurred, the preferential flexibility of the marten to alternative food resources might become more advantageous than the other two species.
Keywords:food diversity  leopard cat  scat analysis  Siberian weasel  Tsushima marten
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号