Avoiding Competition? Site Use, Diet and Foraging Behaviours in Two Similarly Sized Geese Wintering in China

Ardea

Meijuan Zhao⁴  Marcel Klaassen³  Lei Cao⁵  Anthony D. Fox¹  Yong Zhang² 

[1] 5 Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Kalø, GrenÃ¥vej 14, DK-8410 Rønde, Denmark;4 Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands;2 Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, Victoria 3220, Australia;1 School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China 2 Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, Victoria 3220, Australia;3 State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

关键词: Interspecific Competition;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：动物科学

来源: Nederlandse Ornithologische Unie/Netherlands Ornithological Union

【 摘 要 】

Competitionmayoccurwhentwospecieswithsimilarfeedingecologiesexploitthesamelimitedresourcesintimeandspace.Inrecentyears,theEasternTundraBeanGooseAnserfabalisserrirostrisandGreaterWhite-frontedGooseAnseralbifronsfrontalishaveincreasedinwinteringnumbersatShengjinLake,China.Toexaminethepotentialforcoexistenceandpossibleavoidancestrategies,westudied(1)theirhabitatuse,(2)foragingbehavioursand(3)dietsofbirdsforaginginmixed-andsingle-speciesflocks.Bothspeciesextensivelyexploitedsedgemeadows,wheretheyshowedconsiderableoverlapinspatialdistributionanddiet.Thepercentagefeedingtimeanddietofbothspecieswereunaffectedbythepresenceoftheother.GreaterWhite-frontedGeeseappeareddiurnalsedgemeadowspecialists,almostneverfeedinginotherhabitats.EasternTundraBeanGeesewerelessselective,exploitingotherhabitats,whichtheyincreasinglyexploitedatnightinmid-winter.Theuseofalternativehabitatsandnightfeedingmayhaveavoidedinterspecificcompetition.WhilethespecialisedfeedingecologyofGreaterWhite-frontedGeesemaymakethemparticularlyvulnerabletolossofsedgemeadowhabitat,EasternTundraBeanGeesemaybeabletoadjustbecauseoftheiruseofalternativehabitatsandalessrestricteddiet.

【 授权许可】

Unknown