Lo que comen las nutrias ibéricas
- Miguel Clavero
- Jordi Ruiz-Olmo
- Teresa Sales-Luis
- Francisco Blanco-Garrido
- Rafael Romero
- Nuno Miguel Pedroso
- José Prenda
- Margarida Santos-Reis
- Marta Narváez
- Miguel Delibes
- José María López Martín (coord.)
- Juan Jiménez Pérez (coord.)
Verlag: Sociedad Española para la Conservación y Estudio de los Mamíferos ; Universidad de Málaga (UMA)
ISBN: 978-84-612-9094-9
Datum der Publikation: 2009
Seiten: 345-367
Art: Buch-Kapitel
Zusammenfassung
We collected data on otter diet composition in 200 Iberian localities in order to identify its main spatial and temporal gradients of variation. Fish are the most frequent otter prey, although in the Iberian Peninsula their dominance is lower than in central European temperate areas. Fish consumption changes with habitat type, being maximum in rocky coastal areas and minimum in reservoirs and wetlands. Altitude is the main factor affecting otter diet composition in inland waters. In lowlands otter diet is dominated by eel, red swamp crayfish and different alien fish species, while at median altitudes otter predates mainly upon native cyprinids and at higher ones trout is the most frequent prey. The consumption of invasive fish species decreases with altitude, being always higher in lentic systems than in lotic ones. Predation upon red swamp crayfish has clearly increased in the last 25 years. In rocky coastal areas freshwater prey are almost absent from otter diet, while they represent around 50% of the diet in estuaries and marshes, where eel is the main prey. Finally, we discuss yet largely unknown issues or questions of wide ecological interest for which the analyses of otter diet must be a key element.