Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes

The summer diet of the Patagonian opossum Lestodelphys halli was studied in southern Argentinean Patagonia. Faeces of opossums captured alive and stomach contents from dead animals were collected and analyzed. A wide variety of invertebrates (87.2% frequency of occurrence) followed by birds and rept...

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Autores principales:	Zapata,Sonia C, Procopio,Diego, Travaini,Alejandro, Rodríguez,Alejandro
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción 2013
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382013000100009
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0717-653820130001000092013-10-15Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppesZapata,Sonia CProcopio,DiegoTravaini,AlejandroRodríguez,AlejandroThe summer diet of the Patagonian opossum Lestodelphys halli was studied in southern Argentinean Patagonia. Faeces of opossums captured alive and stomach contents from dead animals were collected and analyzed. A wide variety of invertebrates (87.2% frequency of occurrence) followed by birds and reptiles (10.64%) occurred both in faeces and stomachs, and fruits were occasionally consumed. Although the Patagonian opossum was reported as a carnivorous species in captivity, feeding mainly on rodents, reptiles, birds and invertebrates, we did not find remains of rodents in the diet of the opossums. We suggest that Patagonian opossums are not an efficient rodent predator in the wild. The high consumption of invertebrates, reptiles, birds and fruits during the warm season when these items are abundant reflects the opportunistic behavior of this species.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de ConcepciónGayana (Concepción) v.77 n.1 20132013-01-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382013000100009en10.4067/S0717-65382013000100009
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
description	The summer diet of the Patagonian opossum Lestodelphys halli was studied in southern Argentinean Patagonia. Faeces of opossums captured alive and stomach contents from dead animals were collected and analyzed. A wide variety of invertebrates (87.2% frequency of occurrence) followed by birds and reptiles (10.64%) occurred both in faeces and stomachs, and fruits were occasionally consumed. Although the Patagonian opossum was reported as a carnivorous species in captivity, feeding mainly on rodents, reptiles, birds and invertebrates, we did not find remains of rodents in the diet of the opossums. We suggest that Patagonian opossums are not an efficient rodent predator in the wild. The high consumption of invertebrates, reptiles, birds and fruits during the warm season when these items are abundant reflects the opportunistic behavior of this species.
author	Zapata,Sonia C Procopio,Diego Travaini,Alejandro Rodríguez,Alejandro
spellingShingle	Zapata,Sonia C Procopio,Diego Travaini,Alejandro Rodríguez,Alejandro Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
author_facet	Zapata,Sonia C Procopio,Diego Travaini,Alejandro Rodríguez,Alejandro
author_sort	Zapata,Sonia C
title	Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
title_short	Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
title_full	Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
title_fullStr	Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
title_full_unstemmed	Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes
title_sort	summer food habits of the patagonian opossum, lestodelphys halli (thomas, 1921), in southern arid patagonian shrub-steppes
publisher	Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción
publishDate	2013
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382013000100009
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Summer food habits of the Patagonian opossum, Lestodelphys halli (Thomas, 1921), in southern arid Patagonian shrub-steppes

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