Extension of the diet of an extreme foraging specialist, the aardwolf (Proteles cristata) : short communication

The aardwolf, Proteles cristata, is a highly specialized myrmecophagous carnivore that feeds almost exclusively on termites of the genus Trinervitermes. Here we report data from an ongoing analysis of aardwolf diet, where we documented remains of sun spiders and scorpions in aardwolf scats. Although...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAfrican zoology Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 194 - 196
Main Authors Bateman, P.W., De Vries, J.L., Cameron, E.Z., Pirk, C.W.W., Dalerum, F.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published NISC (Pty) Ltd 01.04.2011
Subjects
Arnivore
Diet breadth
Murdoch University
Resource utilization
Solifugids
University of Pretoria
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Summary:The aardwolf, Proteles cristata, is a highly specialized myrmecophagous carnivore that feeds almost exclusively on termites of the genus Trinervitermes. Here we report data from an ongoing analysis of aardwolf diet, where we documented remains of sun spiders and scorpions in aardwolf scats. Although the prevalence of these items was low, with sun spiders recorded in nine and scorpion remains in one of 246 scats, our observations suggest that aardwolves opportunistically feed on larger prey than previously thought. However, our observations do not suggest that aardwolves utilized these large prey items as alternatives to their main food resource during periods of food scarcity. Therefore, we suggest that the adaptive advantages of such opportunism may be small, but that the observed behavioural plasticity could be advantageous under specific environmental conditions and therefore is maintained as a behavioural trait.
ISSN:1562-7020
2224-073X