Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest
In a subarctic forest at Kvaløya, northern Norway, willow grouse Lagopus lagopus fed at snow level by clipping bits of twigs from mountain birch Betula pubescens during winter. Birch has two types of twigs ending in a terminal bud: long twigs with a smooth bark, and short twigs with rings of thicker...
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crwiley:10.1002/wlb3.01065 2024-06-02T08:09:58+00:00 Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest Klemetsen, Anders Smalås, Aslak 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wlb3.01065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/wlb3.01065 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Wildlife Biology volume 2023, issue 3 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01065 2024-05-03T10:41:23Z In a subarctic forest at Kvaløya, northern Norway, willow grouse Lagopus lagopus fed at snow level by clipping bits of twigs from mountain birch Betula pubescens during winter. Birch has two types of twigs ending in a terminal bud: long twigs with a smooth bark, and short twigs with rings of thicker bark. The grouse selected ringed twigs above smooth twigs despite a surplus of smooth twigs in the forest. Ringed twigs had more bark cm −1 of twig length and a higher relative bark/wood ratio than smooth twigs. Smooth twigs had growth nodes that increased in diameter inwards from the tip. Because of the non‐linear relation between the area and the circumference of a circle, the bark/wood ratio decreased for each node. Although being able to clip much thicker twigs, 90% of smooth twigs clipped by grouse were ≤ 2 mm in diameter. It is concluded that willow grouse fed optimally on birch in winter by selecting twigs to minimize fibrous wood intake. Article in Journal/Newspaper Kvaløya Northern Norway Subarctic Wiley Online Library Norway Wildlife Biology 2023 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
In a subarctic forest at Kvaløya, northern Norway, willow grouse Lagopus lagopus fed at snow level by clipping bits of twigs from mountain birch Betula pubescens during winter. Birch has two types of twigs ending in a terminal bud: long twigs with a smooth bark, and short twigs with rings of thicker bark. The grouse selected ringed twigs above smooth twigs despite a surplus of smooth twigs in the forest. Ringed twigs had more bark cm −1 of twig length and a higher relative bark/wood ratio than smooth twigs. Smooth twigs had growth nodes that increased in diameter inwards from the tip. Because of the non‐linear relation between the area and the circumference of a circle, the bark/wood ratio decreased for each node. Although being able to clip much thicker twigs, 90% of smooth twigs clipped by grouse were ≤ 2 mm in diameter. It is concluded that willow grouse fed optimally on birch in winter by selecting twigs to minimize fibrous wood intake. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Klemetsen, Anders Smalås, Aslak |
spellingShingle |
Klemetsen, Anders Smalås, Aslak Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
author_facet |
Klemetsen, Anders Smalås, Aslak |
author_sort |
Klemetsen, Anders |
title |
Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
title_short |
Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
title_full |
Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
title_fullStr |
Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
title_full_unstemmed |
Twig selection on mountain birch Betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
title_sort |
twig selection on mountain birch betula pubescens by winter‐feeding willow grouse lagopus lagopus in a subarctic forest |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wlb3.01065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/wlb3.01065 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Kvaløya Northern Norway Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Kvaløya Northern Norway Subarctic |
op_source |
Wildlife Biology volume 2023, issue 3 ISSN 1903-220X 1903-220X |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01065 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
2023 |
container_issue |
3 |
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1800755758047952896 |