Foods of hunter-killed Black Francolins in Cyprus

Nikolaos Paralikidis (1) , Nikolaos Papageorgiou (1) , Apostolos Tsiompanoudis (1) , Loizos Konstantinou (1) , Theodoros Christakis (1)

1 Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Laboratory of Wildlife and Fisheries

Using stomach content analysis, we studied the diet of the Black Francolin ( on the island of Cyprus during November and December of 2004 and 2005. The purpose of this study was to estimate the most important sources of food on its diet. Stomachs of Black Francolins were obtained from two study areas on Cyprus. We sampled 53 freshly hunter-killed specimens for dietary analysis. Our results showed that dietary intake reflected a generalist and omnivorous diet with seeds of cultivated crops and insects of the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera orders being the most commonly identified. Differences in food composition between the two study areas reflected differences in land use, suggesting that human management of Black Francolin habitat is critical in understanding and managing this important game species.

Mots clés: Stomach content; Diet

Nikolaos Paralikidis, Nikolaos Papageorgiou, Apostolos Tsiompanoudis, Loizos Konstantinou, Theodoros Christakis. Foods of hunter-killed Black Francolins in Cyprus. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 2009, 56 (1), pp.89-93. ⟨10.1007/s10344-009-0315-y⟩. ⟨hal-00535247⟩