Produção Nacional
Megascops choliba (Strigiformes: Strigidae) predation on Scinax x-signatus (Anura: Hylidae) in the semiarid, Northeastern Brazil
2015; Volume: 8; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2071-5773
AutoresWashington Luiz Silva Vieira, Dandara Monalisa Mariz Bezerra, Kleber Silva Vieira, Gindomar Gomes Santana, Paulo Fernando Guedes Pereira Montenegro, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega Alves,
Tópico(s)Animal and Plant Science Education
Resumorelationships in different communities, where they are one of the main food items of the diet of many predators (Duellman and Trueb, 1994). Toledo et al. (2007) reported that birds make up 15% of the main groups of vertebrate predators of post-metamorphic frogs, and these authors recorded a richness of 38 species of anurans as prey for 27 species of birds distributed in 13 orders and 19 families. There is a great diversity of predator birds in Brazil, and the family Strigidae is one of the most representative in terms of number of species (Sick, 2001; Sigrist, 2013). These birds have diurnal or crepuscular/nocturnal habits, and a diet composed of mainly arthropods and small vertebrates (Sick, 2001; Motta-Junior, 2002). Considering the important ecological role of the birds of the family Strigidae as regulators of populations of small vertebrates, this short communication reports an opportunistic predation of Megascops choliba (Vieillot 1817) on Scinax x-signatus (Spix 1824) in a shrubby Caatinga area in the semiarid region of Northeastern Brazil. The predation event was recorded at Fazenda Asa Branca, municipality of Sao Mamede (-6.924139, 37.049500), Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil. The farm has 11 ha and has Caatinga vegetation (shrub vegetation), with sparsely distributed trees, interspersed with areas for farming and ranching. On 19 April 2014 at around 20:00 h, two individuals of M. choliba were observed perched on a branch of a tree (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) close to the homes of Fazenda Asa Branca. Next, the two birds flew for about 10 minutes around the property, and later, one of them returned to perch on a branch of the same tree with an individual of S. x-signatus in its beak (Fig. 1). However, the predation event was not totally observed because the bird then flew off with the anuran to a more distant tree. The few observations of species of the genus Scinax being preyed on by birds report a male of Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus 1766) capturing an individual of S. nasicus (Cope 1862) in the municipality of Corumba, Mato Grosso do Sul, southwestern Brazil (Toledo et al., 2005), Campylorhamphus falcularius Vieillot 1822 preying on S. rizibilis Bokermann 1964, in the municipality of Sao Joao do Triunfo, Parana, southeastern Brazil (Lima and Rodrigues, 2008), and an individual of Guira guira (Gmelin 1788) feeding on a specimen of S. aff. fuscovarius (Lutz 1925) in the Cerrado (savanna) of central Brazil (Morais et al., 2013). Therefore, the present record is the first account of predation of M. choliba on S. x-signatus observed in a neotropical region. The analysis of the diet of M. choliba in Southeast Brazil revealed a total of 34 prey items consumed, Herpetology Notes, volume 8: 275-276 (2015) (published online on 18 May 2015)
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