The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus

Abstract Vultures are central-place foragers and need to optimize their foraging behaviour to offset travel costs by increasing their energy gain. This process is more obvious in certain vulture species that do not feed their young by regurgitation and so must carry food items back to the nest. The...

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Autores principales:	Antoni Margalida, Daniel Villalba
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/593d74b534e147c18abbbd5914644108
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:593d74b534e147c18abbbd59146441082021-12-02T12:32:02ZThe importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus10.1038/s41598-017-08812-22045-2322https://doaj.org/article/593d74b534e147c18abbbd59146441082017-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08812-2https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Vultures are central-place foragers and need to optimize their foraging behaviour to offset travel costs by increasing their energy gain. This process is more obvious in certain vulture species that do not feed their young by regurgitation and so must carry food items back to the nest. The Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus is the only species with a bone-diet based. We analysed the chemical composition of bones and the age-related changes in their nutritive value to assess the differences in energy content between bones of differing age, body part and species. We found differences between specific anatomical parts, species and the age of the bones. Fresh bones contain 108% as much energy as fresh meat and, interestingly, dry bones retain 90% of the protein found in fresh bones. Dry femurs weighing 140 g retain enough protein to be comparable to 111 g of fresh meat, in energy terms. Compared to meat-eating species, the specialized osteophagous diet of the Bearded Vulture seems to have certain advantages. A better understanding of nutrient levels in food remains could help to improve theoretical foraging models, assist in conservation management, and even improve our understanding of the use of bones by early hominids.Antoni MargalidaDaniel VillalbaNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-5 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Antoni Margalida Daniel Villalba The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
description	Abstract Vultures are central-place foragers and need to optimize their foraging behaviour to offset travel costs by increasing their energy gain. This process is more obvious in certain vulture species that do not feed their young by regurgitation and so must carry food items back to the nest. The Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus is the only species with a bone-diet based. We analysed the chemical composition of bones and the age-related changes in their nutritive value to assess the differences in energy content between bones of differing age, body part and species. We found differences between specific anatomical parts, species and the age of the bones. Fresh bones contain 108% as much energy as fresh meat and, interestingly, dry bones retain 90% of the protein found in fresh bones. Dry femurs weighing 140 g retain enough protein to be comparable to 111 g of fresh meat, in energy terms. Compared to meat-eating species, the specialized osteophagous diet of the Bearded Vulture seems to have certain advantages. A better understanding of nutrient levels in food remains could help to improve theoretical foraging models, assist in conservation management, and even improve our understanding of the use of bones by early hominids.
format	article
author	Antoni Margalida Daniel Villalba
author_facet	Antoni Margalida Daniel Villalba
author_sort	Antoni Margalida
title	The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
title_short	The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
title_full	The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
title_fullStr	The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
title_full_unstemmed	The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus
title_sort	importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of bearded vultures gypaetus barbatus
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/593d74b534e147c18abbbd5914644108
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The importance of the nutritive value of old bones in the diet of Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus

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