Diet of the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) during the breeding season in the paramo of Laguna Corazón, Tolima, Colombia
Dieta del búho Bubo virginianus durante el período reproductivo en el páramo de la Laguna Corazón, Tolima, Colombia
Keywords:
biomass, Neotropical owl, Páramo, rabbit, StrigidaeAbstract
We examined the diet of the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) through the analysis of pellets and prey remains collected during the breeding seasons of 2014 and 2015 at a nest found in an grassy páramo at an elevation of 4,020 m, municipality of Murillo, Tolima, in the Central Andes of Colombia. We identified 78 food items recovered from 58 pellets and 80 g of other prey remains. Our results suggest that at least during the breeding season, B. virginianus is preying mainly on the rabbit Sylvilagus brasiliensis, with a frequency of occurrence of 82% in 2014 and 88% in 2015. This rabbit is a large enough prey to give an optimum amount of biomass for reproduction (biomass contribution: 99.92% in 2014 and 99.74% in 2015) compared to other prey species at these elevations. In paramos of the Central Andes, S. brasiliensis is an apparently abundant prey that occurs in pastures and grasslands, generating a greater frequency of predation by B. virginianus, which generally hunts from perches in open or semi-open areas or by gliding slowly above the ground.
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