Diet of the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) (Strigiformes: Tytonidae) in the Saharan Touggourt Area (Algeria)

• Published in: Acta Zoológica Lilloana
• Main Authors: Moussa Hadjoudj, Mohammed Lamine Benhaddya, Karim Souttou, Salaheddine Doumandji
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Fundación Mguel Lillo 2020
• Subjects: Birds; Insects; Rodents; predator-prey interactions; diet composition; Ecology; QH540-549.5; Zoology; QL1-991; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.30550/j.azl/2020.64.1/3; https://doaj.org/article/bfac4257d9f34b5e8cd1cbd5f6d902f7

The Barn Owl, Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769), is a nocturnal raptor species. Their diet includes small vertebrates, mainly rodents, and birds. To study their feeding in the desert area of Touggourt, we collected 153 pellets at the Ranou palm grove. We found 468 specimens belonging to 62 species. In terms of abundance, the item more consumed was Rodents (35.9%) followed by Insects (35.2%) and Birds (10.7%). In terms of absolute abundance, the prey more consumed was Brachytrypes megacephalus (21.4 %), followed by an undetermined Lacertidae species (9.2%) and Gerbillus nanus (8.8%). In terms of biomass, rodents contributed more to the diet of Tyto alba (44.66%) than birds (34.3%) and reptiles (12.06%). The highest value of biomass corresponded to Streptopelia sp. (15.7%), followed by Rattus rattus (14.1%) and an undetermined Lacertidae species (11.8%). To our knowledge, this is the first assess- ment of the diet composition of Tyto alba in the Saharan Touggourt area.