Date of this Version
9-2-2011
Document Type
Article
Abstract
We examined diets of four piscivores, two in the order Perciformes (Cichla temensis and C. orinocensis) and two in the order Characiformes (Boulengerella cuvieri and B. lucius), from the Cinaruco, La Guardia, and Ventuari rivers in Venezuela throughout the wet-dry seasonal cycle. The four piscivores consumed a phylogenetically and morphologically diverse group of fishes, reflecting the overall diversity of fish species in these rivers. At the start of the falling-water period, Cichla consumed large prey, especially the abundant, migratory, fish of the genus Semaprochilodus. As these relatively large prey became depleted during the dry season, Cichla tended to consume smaller prey. For Boulengerella, gape limitation precluded consumption of larger, seasonally abundant, fishes, and so prey sizes were more consistent throughout the seasonal cycle. Our findings show how prey abundance and gape limitations interact to influence seasonal patterns of predator-prey interactions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Montaña, Carmen G. and Layman, Craig A., "Gape size influences seasonal patterns of piscivore diets in three Neotropical rivers" (2011). Department of Biological Sciences. 154.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cas_bio/154
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Comments
Originally published in Neotropical Ichthyology.