Abstract
The diet of the Indian Eagle Owl was studied from April to September 2017 in Tiruchirapalli District, Tamil Nadu, India. Analysis of 1082 regurgitated pellets yielded 2077 prey items; the mean prey items/ pellet was 1.91. The diet constituted 65.1% of rodent prey and the remaining 34.83% of other groups of both vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The mean percentage of prey composition was 31.15% Millardia meltada Soft-furred Field Rat, 12.95% Bandicota bengalensis Lesser Bandicoot Rat, 10.25% Mus booduga Indian Field Mouse, and 10.24% of other rodent species. Of the 34.83% of non-rodent prey, the owls ingested insects (Rhinoceros beetles, 9.58%), Arachnida (Solifugae or Sun spider, Galeodes sp., 9.58%), reptiles (Calotes sp., 3.7%), amphibians (3.56%), shrews (Suncus murinus, 2.84%), and others (5.57%). The Indian Eagle Owls consumed more than one prey per day and chiefly foraged in agricultural crop fields and consumed both small mammals and insects of agricultural importance under crop ecosystems.
Highlights
Owls are nocturnal birds and there are 241 (BirdLife International 2017) living species in the world
Pande & Dahanukar (2011b) and Pande et al (2011) reported B. bengalensis, B. indica, M. meltada, R. rattus, T. indica, M. musculus and Golunda ellioti as the major constituents of the Indian Eagle Owls’ diet in terms of frequency, proportion and biomass. Besides these they reported Rhinoceros beetles, long-horned beetles, grass hoppers, mantids, snakes, scorpions formed the diet of Indian Eagle Owl
The diet of the Indian Eagle Owl in and around Puducherry and a part of Tamil Nadu comprised of prey such as S. murinus, T. indica, Chiroptera, F. palmarum, R. rattus, M. meltada, B. indica, B. bengalensis, Mus spp., Lepus nigricollis, Aves, Varanus bengalensis, Amphiesma stolata, Anura, Paratelphusa sp., Heterometrus swammerdami, Scolopendra morsitans, Orthoptera, Coleoptera (Ramanujam 2006; Ramanujam & Singh 2017)
Summary
Owls are nocturnal birds and there are 241 (BirdLife International 2017) living species in the world. The Indian Eagle Owls are terrestrial nesters of rocky hillocks of hill slopes, earth cuttings and bushes Their hunting grounds consist of agricultural crop fields, water bodies, hills and rural habitats. Regurgitated pellets of owls have undigested body parts of prey like bones, fur of vertebrate and exoskeleton of invertebrate animals. In India, prey spectrum of this species have been studied and reported from Tamil Nadu – Puducherry (ravines and gullies habitats) in southern India (Ramanujam 2006, 2015) and Maharashtra (Pande et al 2011; Pande & Dahanukar 2011b) in central India It is understood from the review of literature that there is limited published information on the diet composition of Indian Eagle Owls from Tamil Nadu and the present study
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