Diet of Conepatus chinga (Carnivore: Mephitidae) in an Polylepis forest of the Department of Arequipa, Peru

Authors

  • César E. Medina 1 Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional San Agustín (MUSA), Arequipa, Perú. Av. Alcides Carrión s/n. 2 Escuela Profesional y Académica de Biología, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Casilla 2775. Arequipa, Perú.
  • Cynthia V. Díaz Escuela Profesional y Académica de Biología, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Casilla 2775. Arequipa, Perú.
  • Freddy A. Delgado Escuela Profesional y Académica de Biología, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Casilla 2775. Arequipa, Perú.
  • Gheraldine A. Ynga Escuela Profesional y Académica de Biología, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Casilla 2775. Arequipa, Perú.
  • Herlam F. Zela Escuela Profesional y Académica de Biología, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Casilla 2775. Arequipa, Perú.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v16i2.203

Keywords:

Andean hog-nosed skunk, feces, food habits.

Abstract

The Andean hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus chinga) is a mephitine of widely distributed in the Peruvian Andes, Almost nothing is known about the species food habits. The present study documents the diet of the Andean hog-nosed skunk in a Polylepis forest of the western slope of the Andes in southern Peru. We analyzed 226 fecal samples, which were identified by their shape and consistency. Food items are shown based on their frequency of occurrence (FO) and percentage of biomass. Diet is composed of 19 components, mainly insects (94,11%) and other invertebrates (3,27%), with occasional presence of vertebrates (1,18%) and plants (1,43%), which explains the low values of the diversity indexes (1-D= 0,16) and width of trophic niche (B= 1, H´= 0,68).

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Published

12/31/2009

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2009 César E. Medina, Cynthia V. Díaz, Freddy A. Delgado, Gheraldine A. Ynga, Herlam F. Zela

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

AUTHORS RETAIN THEIR RIGHTS:

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b. Authors retain their right to share, copy, distribute, perform and publicly communicate their article (eg, to place their article in an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia.

c. Authors retain theirs right to make a subsequent publication of their work, to use the article or any part thereof (eg a compilation of his papers, lecture notes, thesis, or a book), always indicating its initial publication in the Revista Peruana de Biologia (the originator of the work, journal, volume, number and date).

How to Cite

Medina, César E., Cynthia V. Díaz, Freddy A. Delgado, Gheraldine A. Ynga, and Herlam F. Zela. 2009. “Diet of Conepatus Chinga (Carnivore: Mephitidae) in an Polylepis Forest of the Department of Arequipa, Peru”. Revista Peruana De Biología 16 (2): 183-86. https://doi.org/10.15381/rpb.v16i2.203.