Needles in faeces: an index of quality of wild ungulate winter diet

0358424 - ÚBO 2012 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Kamler, Jiří - Homolka, Miloslav
Needles in faeces: an index of quality of wild ungulate winter diet.
Folia zoologica. Roč. 60, č. 1 (2011), s. 63-69. ISSN 0139-7893. E-ISSN 1573-1189
R&D Projects: GA ČR GP206/03/P134
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60930519
Keywords : ruminant diet * diet quality * diet indicator * spectroscopy
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 0.554, year: 2011
http://www.ivb.cz/folia/60/1/10_2011.pdf

Norway spruce is a wide-spread food resource for herbivores. The aim of this study was to test presumption of needles as nutritive poor component of ungulate diets through botanical diet analyses and chemical nutrition estimation (content of crude protein and metabolizable energy volume in faeces) and elaborate the calibration curve on indirect estimation of quality food resources for ungulates in environment (NIRS needle content in faeces). High content of spruce needles corresponded well with a low quality winter diet of wild ungulates and may reflect animal nutritional constraints. As a consequence, the content of spruce needles may be used as an easy index of animal performance in a particular environment in forested area with coniferous forests in temperate zone. Needle content can be determined from the faeces by near infrared spectrophotometer and this easy technique can be recommended as indicator of the food resources quality for ungulates.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0196476