Francesco Pezzo

Food habits of wolves in central Italy based on stomach and intestine analyses

We investigated wolfCanis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 food habits in central Italy by examining stomach and/or intestine contents of 59 individuals. Road accident and illegal kills were main causes of the wolves’ death. Ungulates represented the bulk of the diet (55% in frequency), and among them wild boar was the most important prey, followed by domestic Caprinae. Food items of domestic origin accounted for about 1/3 of all the diet. Diet composition did not vary between stomachs and intestines in spite of the higher degree of digestion of the intestines’ contents. The frequent detection of numerous larvae of Diptera and/or necrophagous Coleoptera, let suppose the consumption of already dead animals, and suggests a general underestimate of the wolf’s scavenging behaviour in previous studies based on scat analyses.

The first five years of the Italian‐Australian joint programme on the Adélie Penguin: An overview

Abstract About 2000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliaë) nest in Edmonson Point (Wood Bay, 74°21’ S, 165°10’ E). The penguin colony is located on a raised terrace, divided into 13 discrete small units or colonies separated by unoccupied areas, where South polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki) nest. Colony layout, breeding chronology, breeding success, diet, and foraging areas were studied for five consecutive austral summers. Satellite transmitters, time‐depth recorders, and electronic tagging were used for monitoring feeding behaviour and nest attendance. An Automated Penguin Monitoring System was installed which records weight, identity, and direction of penguins as they move between the sea and their breeding colony. So far, the results of this study are documentation on colony trends, breeding biology, and differences in foraging strategies at different stages of the reproductive period and during different study seasons.

Food habits of the barn owl, Tyto alba, in a Mediterranean rural area: Comparison with the diet of two sympatric carnivores

Abstract The feeding ecology of the barn owl, Tyto alba, was studied in a Mediterranean hilly area of central Italy. Two hundred and fourteen pellets, from five different sites, were collected, dried, and dissected. Data were analysed on seasonal and annual base. Barn owl predation on small mammals was compared with the food habits of two sympatric carnivores, the red fox and the stone marten. Barn owls fed mainly on mammals whereas birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects were occasionally taken. Apodemus mice were the most frequent (34.16%) prey among mammals. Shrews were eaten only by the barn owl (30.23%), but did not occur in the carnivore diets. In conclusion the results confirmed the barn owl as an ecological specialist of small mammals, on which it seems to prey unselectively, whereas the red fox and the stone marten do not appear to prey on shrews.

Predicting responses of the Adélie penguin population of Edmonson Point to future sea ice changes in the Ross Sea

Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) predict changes in the sea ice environment and in atmospheric precipitations over larger areas of Antarctica. These changes are expected to affect the population dynamics of seabirds and marine mammals, but the extent of this influence is not clear. We investigated the future population trajectories of the colony of Adelie penguins at Edmonson Point, in the Ross Sea, from 2010 to 2100. To do so, we incorporated the relationship between sea ice and demographic parameters of the studied colony into a matrix population model. Specifically, we used sea ice projections from AOGCMs and a proxy for snowfall precipitation. Simulations of population persistence under future climate change scenarios showed that a reduction in sea ice extent and an increase in precipitation events during the breeding season will drive the population to extinction. However, the population growth rate estimated by the model was lower than the population growth rate observed during the last decades, suggesting that recruits from other colonies maintain the observed population dynamics at Edmonson Point. This local ‘rescue’ effect is consistent with a metapopulation dynamic for Adelie penguins in the Ross Sea, in which neighboring colonies might exhibit contrasting population trends and different density-dependent effects. In the hypothesis that connectivity with larger source colonies or that local recruitment would decrease, the sink colony at Edmonson Point is predicted to disappear.