Massive Consumption of Unripe Slash Pine (Pinus Elliottii) Seeds by Blue-and Yellow Macaws (Ara Ararauna)

Silva, Paulo Antônio

doi:10.58843/ornneo.v29i1.363

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The present results pointed out the Red-and-green Macaw temporal variations in the use of feeding areas as a response to local food availability, coherent with the far-ranging use, by macaws, of habitat mosaics, including anthropized areas (Berg et al, 2007;Haugaasen and Peres, 2007;Silva, 2018;Ragusa-Netto, 2022). Furthermore, there was an increase in the number of foraging macaws in a given area during a season as a response to the simultaneous availability of a set of foods (Ragusa-Netto, 2007, 2022.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Feeding ecology of the Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus; Gray 1859) in a habitat mosaic from Cerrado

Ragusa-Netto

2024

Braz. J. Biol.

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In the Brazilian Cerrado, the Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus) populations are facing an accelerated rate of habitat loss. Despite this, their feeding areas and primary food sources remain poorly understood. In this study, I assessed the relationship between the diet of the Red-and-green Macaw and available food resources in a habitat mosaic from the fragmented Cerrado in Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. Red-and-green Macaws fed on 20 native and five exotic species, mainly in dry habitats (Cerrado, dry forest, and an urban area along the Maracaju Cliffs) during the dry season, while year-round foraging in the riparian vegetation (Aquidauana River and streams). Then, the number of feeding macaws paralleled variations in food abundance and diversity, besides the number of food species. On the other hand, by using a wide variety of abundant foods, macaws' diet breadth presented high values throughout the year. The seasonal consumption of large-seeded fruits across the habitat mosaic displayed a gradient ranging from the urban area to dry habitats, along which macaws ate from exotic to Cerrado species. In this respect, Terminalia catappa seeds and Mangifera indica fruit pulp were important for Red-and-green Macaws in the urban area during the wet season, while Caryocar brasiliense seeds comprised the same in the Cerrado. At this site, both Dipteryx alata and Buchenavia tomentosa seeds composed much of the Red-and-green Macaws' diet during the dry season. Between those habitats, in the watercourse vegetation, macaws frequently foraged on palm fruits across seasons. Therefore, throughout the year, the abundance and variety of food resources strongly influenced the number of foraging Red-and-green Macaws across the habitat mosaic. Understanding the effect of varying seed availability on the spatial and temporal abundance patterns of Red-and-green Macaws, which primarily feed on large-seeded species, is central to developing effective conservation strategies. Due to the accelerated habitat loss, the Maracaju Cliffs emerge as crucial for the Red-and-green Macaw among the Cerrado remnants of Mato Grosso do Sul.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Feeding ecology of the Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus; Gray 1859) in a habitat mosaic from Cerrado

Ragusa-Netto

2024

Braz. J. Biol.

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“…Neotropical parrots heavily rely on fluctuating plant food resources whose use often requires a combination of strategies, including mesoscale movements leading to habitat shifts and diet switching, to withstand pronounced changes in food offer (Renton 2001, Ragusa-Netto 2006, Haugaasen & Peres 2007, Renton et al 2015, Silva 2018. Evaluations of the foraging behavior of parrots in response to such erratic food offer should be carried out over areas composed by habitat mosaics as diverse as possible (Haugaasen & Peres 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding Ecology of a Parrot Assemblage in the Brazilian Cerrado

Ragusa-Netto

2022

Ornitol. Neotrop.

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In this study, during two years, I documented the feeding habits of a parrot assemblage in response to food resources offer (abundance, nº of food species, and diversity), across a habitat mosaic in the Brazilian Cerrado. In addition, to each parrot species, I compared variations in those parameters across seasons, as well as in the feeding niche breadth. The feeding activity of every parrot species paralleled both food abundance and the number of food species available. In fact, despite fluctuations, food abundance, the number of food species, and diversity exhibited similar values through seasons, suggesting a trend for adequate food supply across the three major habitat types (palm swamp, gallery forest, and the dominant Cerrado vegetation). Excepting Orthopsittaca manilata (foraged only on Mauritia flexuosa fruit pulp), all other five species (Ara ararauna, Amazona aestiva, Alipiopsitta xanthops, Eupsittula aurea, and Diopsittaca nobilis) showed wide feeding niche breadth. Their broad diets resulted from the opportunist use of a rich collection of seasonal food species. Moreover, they presented diet association according to plant part eaten, in which parrot’s diet displayed a gradient that had an increasingly greater dominance of seeds (A. ararauna, A. aestiva, and A. aurea), to a diet composed mainly by fruit pulp and flowers (A. xanthops, and D. nobilis). The accelerated fragmentation process of the Brazilian Cerrado has been suppressing habitat types in which unpredictable and scattered food patches might be available to parrots. Thus, conservation plans should prioritize the inclusion of habitat mosaics, at least, in the form documented here. As a concern, in the smaller Cerrado remnants, food resources available may be scarce, mainly in terms of the variety and abundance year-round required by parrots.

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“…Thus, despite their specialization, Red‐bellied Macaws exhibit dietary flexibility by associating with introduced plants, seemingly as a response to changes in their principal food (Greenberg, 1990). Ultimately, this indicates potential resilience to human‐induced environmental changes (Matuzak et al., 2008; Silva, 2018). Comparative studies on M. flexuosa and L. chinensis fruiting on a Cerrado scale could support such assumptions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of unripe fruit exploitation by macaws, we assumed antagonistic interactions, as seed predation or discarding of underdeveloped fruits could hinder germination (Silva, 2018). In the context of ripe fruit exploitation, we considered the potential for mutualistic relationships, drawing from the extensive field experience of the first author with macaws (Silva & Melo, 2015) and insights gathered from the literature on macaw‐palm interactions (Baños‐Villalba et al., 2017; Carrete et al., 2022; Tella et al., 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing new insights into Red‐bellied Macaw foraging ecology through citizen photography

Silva,

da Silva Júnior,

Santos

et al. 2024

Austral Ecology

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Social media platforms focused on wildlife photography have become valuable ecological data sources through citizen science. In this study, we utilized photos shared by citizens on iNaturalist and WikiAves to analyse the interactions of the Red‐bellied Macaw (Orthopsittaca manilatus Boddaert, 1783) with its food plants. Despite being recognized as specialists in Mauritia flexuosa L.f. palm fruits, our findings suggest some flexibility in the foraging behaviour of the macaws. The photos indicate that palm fruits are an essential food source (20 taxa; highlight the native species M. flexuosa, Euterpe spp., Elaeis oleifera, and Syagrus spp.) in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes. It also confirms the predominance of M. flexuosa ripe pulp fruits in their diet, encompassing 45.2% of the 414 analysed photographs. The results highlight the potential role of the Red‐bellied Macaw in seed dispersal (stomatochory) for various palm species and reveal the consumption of new food sources such as flowers (present in 8% of photos) and alien plants, including the fruits of cultivated Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R. Br. Ex Mart. palm (10.9%). Our photo analysis provided a comprehensive overview of Red‐bellied Macaws feeding in diverse localities (141 municipalities in 15 Brazilian states) and at different times. As a result, there is a consistent seasonal variation in foraging in the strongly seasonal Cerrado biome, for example, feeding on alien‐cultivated palm fruits in urban areas during the driest period, particularly L. chinensis. Through this photographic approach, we expanded knowledge of the macaw's food plants by 85.7%, now encompassing 26 species compared to the initial 14 documented species. This study underscores the relevance of citizen science in obtaining novel dietary data and deepening our understanding of ecological patterns in specialized species, emphasizing the significance of considerate plant‐bird relationships to support conservation efforts.

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Massive Consumption of Unripe Slash Pine (Pinus Elliottii) Seeds by Blue-and Yellow Macaws (Ara Ararauna)

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

Feeding ecology of the Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus; Gray 1859) in a habitat mosaic from Cerrado

Feeding ecology of the Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus; Gray 1859) in a habitat mosaic from Cerrado

Feeding Ecology of a Parrot Assemblage in the Brazilian Cerrado

Revealing new insights into Red‐bellied Macaw foraging ecology through citizen photography

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