Polar Biology 16, 75-77 (1996)
Sexual difference in the diet of king cormorants at Macquarie Island
Kato, A., I. Nishiumi & Y. Naito
Sexual differences in the diet of king cormorants, Phatacrocorax albivenIer, were investigated during the 1993/1994 austral summer at Macquarie Island. The major food items, identified by otoliths in regurgitations, were demersal fish; fish mass consumed could be estimated using a wet mass-otolith length relationship. Two fish species, Paranotothenia magelIanica and Harpagifer georgianus, constituted 98 % of the wet mass (male and female cormorants combined). Estimated individual fish mass of Paranotothenia magellanica (19.6 _+ 11.6 g) was greater than that of H. georgianus (2.8 + 1.3 g). Total wet mass of food and number offish in regurgitations did not differ statistically between the sexes of cormorants. However, males tended to feed on larger fish than did females.
BD96-03
|
