Artificial light at night and the diet of a bird of prey in Caatinga

Abstract

This study investigated the potential influence of artificial nocturnal lighting (ALAN) on the diet and behavior of the owl Tyto furcata in the Caatinga biome, northeastern Brazil, from 2016 to 2021. The diet of T. furcata was compared between two adjacent areas, the National Park (PARNA) Furna Feia and the urban area of the municipality of Mossoró, a semiarid region of the west of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, with different ALAN intensities. The analysis of the geographic information system (GIS), using night images from the SNPP and NOAA-20 satellites, identified that ALAN in PARNA Furna Feia was absence, while in the urban perimeter of Mossoró, ALAN was present. The diet of T. furcata owls at PARNA Furna Feia comprised mostly of bats and nocturnal rodents captured at night under rocks and caves. In the urban area of Mossoró, the diet consisted mainly of diurnal birds and rodents captured during the night, when they rested in roosts under ALAN. Thus, urbanization affects the foraging behavior and diet of this bird of prey in Caatinga. ALAN appears to be one of the environmental conditions that T. furcata favors in urban habitats in the Caatinga biome, as it allows nightly hunting under artificial lighting of birds aggregated in roosts.