Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet
The snowy owl is an elusive arctic predator known for its nomadic behaviour. Satellite tracking has revealed that some adult snowy owls could make an extensive use of the marine environment during the non‐breeding season. However, the relative contribution of marine resources to their diet is unknow...
Published in: | Journal of Avian Biology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.01257 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.01257 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.01257 |
id |
crwiley:10.1111/jav.01257 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crwiley:10.1111/jav.01257 2024-06-23T07:50:20+00:00 Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet Robillard, Audrey Gauthier, Gilles Therrien, Jean‐François Fitzgerald, Guy Provencher, Jennifer F. Bêty, Joël 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.01257 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.01257 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.01257 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Avian Biology volume 48, issue 6, page 759-769 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X journal-article 2017 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01257 2024-06-04T06:41:41Z The snowy owl is an elusive arctic predator known for its nomadic behaviour. Satellite tracking has revealed that some adult snowy owls could make an extensive use of the marine environment during the non‐breeding season. However, the relative contribution of marine resources to their diet is unknown. Stable isotope analyses can be useful to document the diet of mobile animals during periods of the year when individuals are less accessible. This study aimed to assess variation in isotopic values (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of various feather types, and the usefulness of feathers to determine the contribution of the marine environment to the winter diet of snowy owls captured in summer. We sampled feathers coming from 6 body regions of 18 breeding females at two sites in the eastern Canadian Arctic in 2013 and 2014. Prior to analyses, diet‐tissue discrimination factors of snowy owl feathers were established in captivity. Variability in isotopic values among feather types was relatively low and pairwise correlations in isotopic values between feathers on the same individual were variable and often low, which suggests differences in the diet at the time when various feathers were synthesized. Diet reconstruction models detected a contribution of marine sources to snowy owl feathers ranging from 4 to 19% among feather types. However, the marine contribution was highly variable when single feathers were examined within individuals, ranging from 3 to 71%. This indicated that no single feather type could be used alone to reliably infer the contribution of marine resources to the winter diet of owls, possibly due to a high variability in the timing and sequence of molt. For asynchronous molters like snowy owls, we recommend sampling multiple feathers from various body regions, excluding wing feathers, to investigate winter diet or habitat use. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic snowy owl Wiley Online Library Arctic Journal of Avian Biology 48 6 759 769 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
The snowy owl is an elusive arctic predator known for its nomadic behaviour. Satellite tracking has revealed that some adult snowy owls could make an extensive use of the marine environment during the non‐breeding season. However, the relative contribution of marine resources to their diet is unknown. Stable isotope analyses can be useful to document the diet of mobile animals during periods of the year when individuals are less accessible. This study aimed to assess variation in isotopic values (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of various feather types, and the usefulness of feathers to determine the contribution of the marine environment to the winter diet of snowy owls captured in summer. We sampled feathers coming from 6 body regions of 18 breeding females at two sites in the eastern Canadian Arctic in 2013 and 2014. Prior to analyses, diet‐tissue discrimination factors of snowy owl feathers were established in captivity. Variability in isotopic values among feather types was relatively low and pairwise correlations in isotopic values between feathers on the same individual were variable and often low, which suggests differences in the diet at the time when various feathers were synthesized. Diet reconstruction models detected a contribution of marine sources to snowy owl feathers ranging from 4 to 19% among feather types. However, the marine contribution was highly variable when single feathers were examined within individuals, ranging from 3 to 71%. This indicated that no single feather type could be used alone to reliably infer the contribution of marine resources to the winter diet of owls, possibly due to a high variability in the timing and sequence of molt. For asynchronous molters like snowy owls, we recommend sampling multiple feathers from various body regions, excluding wing feathers, to investigate winter diet or habitat use. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Robillard, Audrey Gauthier, Gilles Therrien, Jean‐François Fitzgerald, Guy Provencher, Jennifer F. Bêty, Joël |
spellingShingle |
Robillard, Audrey Gauthier, Gilles Therrien, Jean‐François Fitzgerald, Guy Provencher, Jennifer F. Bêty, Joël Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
author_facet |
Robillard, Audrey Gauthier, Gilles Therrien, Jean‐François Fitzgerald, Guy Provencher, Jennifer F. Bêty, Joël |
author_sort |
Robillard, Audrey |
title |
Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
title_short |
Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
title_full |
Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
title_fullStr |
Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
title_sort |
variability in stable isotopes of snowy owl feathers and contribution of marine resources to their winter diet |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jav.01257 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjav.01257 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jav.01257 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic snowy owl |
genre_facet |
Arctic snowy owl |
op_source |
Journal of Avian Biology volume 48, issue 6, page 759-769 ISSN 0908-8857 1600-048X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01257 |
container_title |
Journal of Avian Biology |
container_volume |
48 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
759 |
op_container_end_page |
769 |
_version_ |
1802641196870270976 |