Data from: The influence of plant defensive chemicals, diet composition, and winter severity on the nutritional condition of a free-ranging, generalist herbivore ...

• Main Authors: Parikh, Grace L., Forbey, Jennifer Sorensen, Robb, Brecken, Peterson, Rolf O., Vucetich, Leah M., Vucetich, John A.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: Plant secondary metabolites; Alces alces
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8f973; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.8f973

When consuming plants, herbivores must deal with both low nutritional quality from cell wall constituents and potentially toxic plant secondary metabolites, which are often inversely related. Herbivores that consume a highly nutritious, but chemically defended plant, may consume high levels of toxins that require energy for detoxification. Alternatively, herbivores may avoid consuming high levels of toxins by consuming a diverse diet that may be lower in overall nutritional quality. In this study, we assessed the relationship among nutritional restriction, detoxification and diet diversity in a free-ranging wild herbivore. We collected urine deposited in the snow (hereafter, snow-urine) and feces by free-ranging moose Alces americanus, a generalist browser, during winter. We used the ratio of urinary urea nitrogen to creatinine (UN:C), measured in snow-urine samples, as an indicator of nutritional restriction, and the ratio of glucuronic acid to creatinine (GA:C), as an indicator of investment in ... : dryad_dataData used for analysis for manuscript and figures. ...