Diet and feeding in the Cape Cobra, Naja nivea

IF 0.8 4区 生物学 Q3 ZOOLOGY
I. Layloo, Caitlin Smith, B. Maritz
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引用次数: 15

Abstract

Abstract It is widely reported that African cobras (genus Naja) are generalist predators, but examination of formal literature yields relatively little evidence of this for most species. Here, we review the diet of cape cobras (Naja nivea) based on examination of museum specimens, an extensive literature review, and social media reported natural history observations. We quantify dietary niche breadth and test the hypothesis that cape cobras are generalist predators. Additionally, we test the hypotheses that diet varies significantly (1) across biomes, and (2) across winter, summer and year-round rainfall regions. We gathered 101 feeding records for cape cobras and based on family-level prey frequencies calculated Levins’ measure of niche breadth as B = 6.57, which we standardised to BA = 0.29. We found no association between prey classes and biomes or rainfall region. Our data indicate that cape cobras consume a wide range of vertebrate prey from all four tetrapod classes, including a large number and diversity of snakes. Our findings suggest that cape cobras may be involved in several important ecological processes. Moreover, our study demonstrates the utility and value of collating natural history observations reported on social media platforms.
眼镜蛇角的饮食和喂养
摘要据广泛报道,非洲眼镜蛇(眼镜蛇属)是多面手捕食者,但对正式文献的研究表明,大多数物种的证据相对较少。在这里,我们根据对博物馆标本的检查、广泛的文献综述和社交媒体报道的自然史观察,回顾了眼镜蛇的饮食。我们量化了饮食生态位的广度,并检验了眼镜蛇是多面手捕食者的假设。此外,我们还检验了以下假设:(1)不同生物群落的饮食差异显著,(2)冬季、夏季和全年降雨地区的饮食差异明显。我们收集了101条眼镜蛇的进食记录,并根据家族水平的猎物频率计算出Levins对生态位宽度的测量值为B = 6.57,我们将其标准化为BA = 0.29.我们没有发现猎物种类与生物群落或降雨区域之间的联系。我们的数据表明,眼镜蛇角捕食四个四足动物纲的各种脊椎动物猎物,包括大量多样的蛇。我们的研究结果表明,眼镜蛇可能参与了几个重要的生态过程。此外,我们的研究证明了整理社交媒体平台上报道的自然史观察结果的实用性和价值。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.00
自引率
6.70%
发文量
15
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: African Journal of Herpetology (AJH) serves as an outlet for original research on the biology of African amphibians and reptiles. AJH is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original articles and reviews from diverse fields and disciplines, such as conservation, phylogenetics, evolution, systematics, performance, physiology, ecology, behavioural ecology, ethology, and morphology. The Journal publishes two issues a year. There are no page charges .
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