Abstract

TETTE-POMARICO, Aliano; LOPEZ-PENA, Arístides; FRANKE-ANTE, Rebeca  and  DUARTE, Luis Orlando. Diet and trophic niche breadth of the neotropical cormorant [Nannopterum brasilianus (Gmelin, 1789)] in the Flora and Fauna Sanctuary Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, Caribbean Colombia. Bol. Invest. Mar. Cost. [online]. 2020, vol.49, suppl.1, pp.193-208.  Epub Sep 04, 2021. ISSN 0122-9761.  https://doi.org/10.25268/bimc.invemar.2020.49.suplesp.1072.

The neotropical cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianus) is a piscivorous bird with colonial nesting. It is distributed from southern North America to Argentina. The largest colony of N. brasilianus in Colombia is located in the locality of Punta Blanca, in the Flora and Fauna Sanctuary Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (FFS CGSM), in the lagoon complex with same name (LC CGSM). The diet and niche width of N. brasilianus were analyzed from pellets collected on the western edge of the Punta Blanca nesting colony during the breeding season of 2017. Prey identification was based on mainly on the morphology of the fish otoliths found in these pellets (n = 64). There were eight fish species identified in the diet of N. brasilianus of which three are new records for the diet of the population of the lagoon complex (Mugil liza, M. curema y M. cephalus). It is highlighted the representativeness of Cathorops mapale is reported, as the main prey consumed during the study (89.5 % in number and 91.8% in frequency of occurrence). A narrow trophic niche breadth was observed (Levin’s 0.002) and a diet with low equitability (q2 = 2.1), which corresponds to an adaptive response modeled by the availability of prey.

Keywords : acuatic birds; swamps; coastal ecosystems; Phalacrocoracidae.

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