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Noticed hyena looking birds at a waterhole in Namibia. Credit score: Miha Krofel
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Noticed hyena looking birds at a waterhole in Namibia. Credit score: Miha Krofel
Noticed hyenas are identified for looking (or scavenging) bigger mammals equivalent to antelopes and infrequently feed on smaller mammals and reptiles. Being versatile within the alternative of prey is a method of generalists—and this even extends to small passerine birds, as scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Analysis (Leibniz-IZW) and the College of Ljubljana noticed in Namibia.
Noticed hyenas pursued red-billed queleas, picked them from the bottom or the floor of a waterhole and swallowed them complete, at successful price of roughly one fowl each three minutes. These observations had been described for the primary time in phrase, pictures and movies in Meals Webs.
The weight loss program breadth of hyenas is matched by few different carnivores. Noticed hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are identified to hunt quite a lot of bigger mammals equivalent to zebras and antelopes in southern and japanese Africa—but in addition ostriches, flamingos, reptiles, different carnivores. Additionally they scavenge on carcasses from giraffes to elephants and cattle. Till now only a few observations of hyenas feeding on small birds had been reported.
“In our paper we describe for the primary time the looking and feeding habits of noticed hyenas on red-billed queleas (Quelea quelea), a passerine fowl identified for its enormous flocks, at a waterhole within the Etosha Nationwide Park in Namibia,” say Rubén Portas and Dr. Miha Krofel, scientists working for the Leibniz-IZW and the College of Ljubljana.
On two completely different days they noticed, filmed and photographed noticed hyenas chasing flying birds or choosing them from the bottom or the water floor, and devouring them complete on the waterhole. “We noticed {that a} single hyena can catch on common one fowl each three minutes,” the scientists conclude from their observations.
Noticed hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) looking and feeding on red-billed queleas (Quelea quelea) in Etosha Nationwide Park, Namibia . Credit score: Meals Webs (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2024.e00340
The scientists may draw some conclusions in regards to the feeding habits of noticed hyenas from their observations.
“It provides to the identified number of the noticed hyena weight loss program and looking ways, since this habits has not been documented earlier than,” says Portas. “It confirms their flexibility and talent to use foraging alternatives and acquiring meals from uncommon sources. We will additionally present a primary estimate on the seize charges and the meals consumption of hyenas looking passerine birds.”
Because the observations had been restricted to a single waterhole, it’s doable that the described foraging tactic was particular to the hyenas from the noticed clan and occurred as an opportunistic response to an plentiful meals supply, the authors say. Between Might and August, hundreds of wintering red-billed queleas collect at waterholes in Namibia.
Portas and Krofel commonly perform discipline analysis on vultures, lions, leopards and hyenas and examine carnivore-scavenger interactions and knowledge switch within the scavenger group for the and InterMuc initiatives in Etosha Nationwide Park.
Extra info:
Ruben Portas et al, Noticed hyena (Crocuta crocuta) predation on passerine birds in Namibia, Meals Webs (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2024.e00340