Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece
Abstract In territorial raptors, breeding performance and foraging behaviour are affected by territory characteristics as the abundance and availability of different prey species varies between habitats. In this study, we examined the diet of two White-tailed Eagle pairs, occupying neighbouring terr...
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2023
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 |
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crdegruyter:10.2478/srj-2023-0002 2024-05-19T07:49:54+00:00 Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece Bounas, Anastasios Karta, Evangelia Navarrete, Elisabeth Sidiropoulos, Lavrentis Alivizatos, Haralambos 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 en eng Walter de Gruyter GmbH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 Raptor Journal volume 17, issue 1, page 15-24 ISSN 2644-5247 journal-article 2023 crdegruyter https://doi.org/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 2024-05-02T06:52:07Z Abstract In territorial raptors, breeding performance and foraging behaviour are affected by territory characteristics as the abundance and availability of different prey species varies between habitats. In this study, we examined the diet of two White-tailed Eagle pairs, occupying neighbouring territories in two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece. We assess the diet composition of the species in the southernmost part of its European range and evaluate any intraspecific differences in the diet that may reflect resource and/or niche partitioning between territories. We found that birds and specifically waterbirds comprise the largest and quantitatively most important part of the White-tailed Eagle´s diet, with fish being the second most important prey group that was only found in the nest remains from one territory. There was high diet overlap between the two territories and when considering only avian prey our results suggest that the species predates on heavier (and the most common) waterbird species. A main factor that could be driving differences in the abundance and availability of different prey species between territories could be lake physiography, as our results point to a segregation and a subsequent resource partitioning between territories, with each pair utilizing an adjacent lake and its associated habitats. Competition and territoriality therefore seem to be important intraspecific interactions that along with prey availability could promote changes in territory size and ultimately affect individual fitness. Article in Journal/Newspaper White-tailed eagle De Gruyter Raptor Journal 17 1 15 24 |
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language |
English |
description |
Abstract In territorial raptors, breeding performance and foraging behaviour are affected by territory characteristics as the abundance and availability of different prey species varies between habitats. In this study, we examined the diet of two White-tailed Eagle pairs, occupying neighbouring territories in two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece. We assess the diet composition of the species in the southernmost part of its European range and evaluate any intraspecific differences in the diet that may reflect resource and/or niche partitioning between territories. We found that birds and specifically waterbirds comprise the largest and quantitatively most important part of the White-tailed Eagle´s diet, with fish being the second most important prey group that was only found in the nest remains from one territory. There was high diet overlap between the two territories and when considering only avian prey our results suggest that the species predates on heavier (and the most common) waterbird species. A main factor that could be driving differences in the abundance and availability of different prey species between territories could be lake physiography, as our results point to a segregation and a subsequent resource partitioning between territories, with each pair utilizing an adjacent lake and its associated habitats. Competition and territoriality therefore seem to be important intraspecific interactions that along with prey availability could promote changes in territory size and ultimately affect individual fitness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bounas, Anastasios Karta, Evangelia Navarrete, Elisabeth Sidiropoulos, Lavrentis Alivizatos, Haralambos |
spellingShingle |
Bounas, Anastasios Karta, Evangelia Navarrete, Elisabeth Sidiropoulos, Lavrentis Alivizatos, Haralambos Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
author_facet |
Bounas, Anastasios Karta, Evangelia Navarrete, Elisabeth Sidiropoulos, Lavrentis Alivizatos, Haralambos |
author_sort |
Bounas, Anastasios |
title |
Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
title_short |
Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
title_full |
Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
title_fullStr |
Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diet composition of White-tailed Eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in Northern Greece |
title_sort |
diet composition of white-tailed eagles inhabiting two adjacent inland lakes in northern greece |
publisher |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 |
genre |
White-tailed eagle |
genre_facet |
White-tailed eagle |
op_source |
Raptor Journal volume 17, issue 1, page 15-24 ISSN 2644-5247 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2478/srj-2023-0002 |
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Raptor Journal |
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17 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
15 |
op_container_end_page |
24 |
_version_ |
1799468465784881152 |