Keywords
cricetid rodents
owl pellets
barn owl
How to Cite
Abstract
In the Ecuadorian dry forest of the Valdivia region, near Machalilla National Park, two Barn Owl (Tyto alba) refuges was found in a cliff. Owl pellets and many bones of prey animals were found at the base of the cliff. The bones were picked up, mainly skulls and jaws and were identified. Eight species of mammals were registered; 85 % represents rodents and 12.6 % marsupials. The Peruvian cotton mouse (Sigmodon peruanus) is the main mammal hunted by this owl, representing 40.2% of the total mammals used as food by the owl, followed by the yellow coast rat (Aegiolamys xantheolus) with 33.3 %, then by the pacific spiny rat (Proechimys decumanus) with 9.2 %, next by the simons"™s small opossum (Marmosa robinsoni simonsi) with 8%, the common opossum (Didelphis sp.) with 4.6%, the transandean rat (Transandinomys sp.) with 2.3 %. The wild rabbit (Sylvilagus brasiliensis) and the fruit-eating bat (Artibeus fraterculus), represent 3.6% (one specimen each). The average number of individuals registered in each pellet was 2.2.
References
Pardiñas, U. F. J and Cirignoli, S. 2002. "Bibliografía comentada sobre los análisis de egagrópilas de aves rapaces en argentina". Ornitología Neotropical. 13, 31-59.
Correa, P. and Roa, A. 2005. "Relaciones tróficas entre Oncifelis guigna, Lycalopex culpaeus, Lycalopex griseus y Tyto alba en un ambiente fragmentado de la zona central de chile". Mastozoología Neotropical. 12 (1), 57-60.
Escarlate-Tavares, F. and Pessoa, L. M. 2005. "Bats (chiroptera, mammalia) in barn owl (tyto alba) pellets in northern pantanal, Mato grosso, Brazil". Mastozoología Neotropical. 12 (1), 61-67.
Cerón, C., Palacios, W., Valencia, R., and Sierra, R. 1999. "Las formaciones naturales de la costa del Ecuador". Propuesta Preliminar de un Sistema de Clasificación de Vegetación para el Ecuador Continental. 55-78.
Musser, G. G., Carleton, M. D., Brothers, E. M., and Gardner, A. L. 1998. "Systematic studies of oryzomyine rodents (muridae, sigmodontinae): Diagnoses and distributions of species formerly assigned to Oryzomys "˜capito". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 236, 1-376.
Carleton, M. D. and Musser, G. G. 1989. "Systematic studies of oryzomyine rodents (muridae, sigmodontinae): A synopsis of Microryzomys". Bulletin of the American Museum ofNatural History. 191, 1-83.
Albuja, L. 2002. "Diversidad y conservación de los mamíferos neotropicales". Mamíferos del Ecuador. 271-327.
Tirira, D. 2007. "Guía de campo de los mamíferos del ecuador. ediciones murciélago blanco". Publicación especial sobre los mamíferos del Ecuador. 6.
Weksler, M., Percequillo, A. R., and Voss, R. 2006. "Ten new genera of oryzomyne rodents (cricetidae: Sigmodontinae)". American Museum Novitates. 3537, 1-29.
Musser, G. G. and Carleton, M. D. 2005. "Order rodentia". Mammal Species of the World, Third Edition. 2, 745-752.
Voss, R. S. 1992. "A revision of the South American species of Sigmodon (mammalia: Muridae) with notes on their natural history and biogeography". American Museum Novitates. 3050,1-55.
Copyright notice
Authors who publish in the journal ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierías accept the following terms:
- The authors will retain their copyright and guarantee the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License that allows third parties to share the work provided that its author and its first publication in this journal is indicated.
- Authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work, thereby being able to publish it in a monographic volume or reproduce it in other ways, provided that the initial publication in this journal is indicated.
- Authors are permitted and advised to disseminate their work over the Internet:
- Before submission to the journal, authors can deposit the manuscript in pre-publication files/repositories (preprint servers/repositories), including arXiv, bioRxiv, figshare, PeerJ Preprints, SSRN, and others, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work (see The effect of open access).
- After submission, it is recommended that authors deposit their article in their institutional repository, personal website, or scientific social network (such as Zenodo, ResearchGate or edu).