A study about food habits of chilla (Lycalopex griseus) was done in a sector of the intermediate depression of southern Chile, called Predio Rucamanque, Region de la Araucanía. Faeces were collected through three seasons of the year, identifying their diet composition. Results show a trend towards small mammals followed by birds, and in a lesser ratio, insects.
El proceso de transformación del paisaje ha sido más intenso y vasto en la depresión intermedia del centro y sur de Chile distribución de los mamíferos carnívoros, según sean especialistas o generalistas de hábitat, así como del tamaño de su selectivo de Puma concolor, Galictis cuja y Lycalopex griseus Leopardus guigna,
Fires have a considerable impact on biological communities and ecosystems, within which the assessment of burned habitats requires consideration of indicator species or assemblages useful for monitoring. The short‐term effects of fires can be easily deduced from analysing assemblages of animals with short generation times and high fertility rates, such as rodents. Here, we evaluated the effect of fire severity in a protected area of southern Chile on abundance, composition and diversity of rodent assemblages. We sampled rodents and vegetation variables during summer and fall over two years (2017 and 2018) in forest stands with different levels of fire severity (high, low and unburned stands). Changes in diversity and abundance were found between unburned and burned stands, with these differences being more noticeable during the fall of the first year. Abundances of rodent species exhibited marked fluctuations over the study period, but two species consistently decreased their abundances as fire severity increased, and with the absence of one species in burned stands. The adverse fire effects were less evident during the second year due to the overall low capture rates (1.3–1.9%). Rodent species were differently affected by fire, with Irenomys tarsalis (arboreal rat) being the species most sensitive to fires. The effect of fire severity on abundance of rodent species was associated with changes in the vegetation variables, where dead wood, canopy and herb cover showed a low correlation (R = 0.147). Our results suggest that fires of high severity cause important disturbances on habitat and food resources that result in short‐term effects on the rodent assemblage. Fires apparently act as an ecological filter for the more specialised species while offering an opportunity for the settlement of generalist species. Hence, the monitoring of rodent species differing in their ecological traits, such as food habits and space use, offers an opportunity for assessing the short‐term recovery patterns of wildlife after fire disturbances.
The South American grey fox Lycalopex griseus is a canid widely distributed in southern South America; however, some aspects of its biology are still poorly known. We studied the diet and density of L. griseus in the Lago Peñuelas Biosphere Reserve, in Central Chile. The trophic niche breadth was B = 6.16 (B sta = 0.47) and prey diversity was H′ = 2.46 (H max ′ = 3.17, J′ = 0.78). The highest proportions of prey consumed in the diet were Oryctolagus cuniculus (52.21%) and other mammals (32.78%). We compared these results with a latitudinal gradient of diet results for this species in Chile. L. griseus eats mostly mammals (>90% of total prey), consuming the rodent Phyllotis darwini and reptiles in the northern zone; Oryctolagus cuniculus, Octodon degus and Abrocoma bennetti in the central zone; Abrothrix spp. and lagomorphs in the southern zone; and Lepus capensis and Ovis aries in the austral zone. The estimated density of L. griseus in Lago Peñuelas NR was 1.3 foxes/km 2 .
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