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Winter diet of striated caracara Phalcoboenus australis (Aves, Polyborinae) at a farm settlement on the Falkland Islands

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Abstract

Striated caracaras occur only on the Falkland Islands and the outer islands of southern Chile and Argentina. In summer, the species associates with seabirds and seals and depends heavily upon them for food. The winter diet is less well understood. We studied the diet of 90–130 mainly juvenile and sub-adult striated caracaras overwintering at a farm on Saunders Island, Falkland Islands, in mid-winter (July–August) 2011. Direct observations of feeding and regurgitation pellets collected at a roost indicate that the winter diet of the striated caracaras at the site is mainly native geese, beetles and other invertebrates, and the carcasses of domestic sheep. This study illustrates seasonal shifts in the diet of this near-threatened South Atlantic endemic and suggests an important nutritional link between juvenile and subadult caracara survival in winter and traditional human activities at sheep farms.

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Acknowledgments

Suzan and David Pole-Evans provided us with critical logistical support and useful information throughout our studies on Saunders Island. Falklands Conservation secured permits from the Falkland Islands Government. We thank the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department and Department of Agriculture for use of their laboratory facilities, and Rebecca Upson and Paul Brickle for help in identifying botanical and marine samples. The study was financed by the family of Sarkis and Bobbye Acopian, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and the Darwin Fund. Grant Munro, Craig Dockrill, James Fenton, Sam Cockwell, Roo Campbell, James Dwyer, and Farrah Peck helped in numerous ways. David Barber, Jonathan Meiburg, Helen Otley, five anonymous referees, and the chief editor of Polar Biology made many comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. We thank them all for their assistance and support. This is Hawk Mountain Sanctuary contribution to conservation science number 223.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Acopian Center for Conservation Learning, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, 410 Summer Valley Road, Orwigsburg, PA, 17961, USA

    Keith L. Bildstein

  2. P.O. Box 598, Stanley, FIQQ1ZZ, Falkland Islands

    Kalinka Rexer-Huber

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  1. Kalinka Rexer-Huber
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  2. Keith L. Bildstein
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Correspondence to Keith L. Bildstein.

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Rexer-Huber, K., Bildstein, K.L. Winter diet of striated caracara Phalcoboenus australis (Aves, Polyborinae) at a farm settlement on the Falkland Islands. Polar Biol 36, 437–443 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1266-4

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