Feeding Specialization of Honey Badgers in the Sahara Desert: A Trial of Life in a Hard Environment
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Gil Sánchez, José MaríaEditorial
MDPI
Materia
Arid environments Exploitative competence Feeding ecology Mellivora capensis Uromastyx genus
Date
2020-02-02Referencia bibliográfica
Gil-Sánchez, J. M., Herrera-Sánchez, F. J., Rodríguez-Siles, J., Sáez, J. M., Díaz-Portero, M. Á., Arredondo, Á., ... & McCain, E. (2020). Feeding Specialization of Honey Badgers in the Sahara Desert: A Trial of Life in a Hard Environment. Diversity, 12(2), 59.
Sponsorship
This research was partially funded by Fundación Barcelona Zoo grant number PRIC 2017.Abstract
The honey badger (Mellivora capensis) is a medium-sized carnivore distributed throughout
Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Turkmenistan, and India. However, available information
on its ecology is very scarce. We studied its feeding ecology in the remote north-western Sahara
Desert, based on the contents of 125 fecal samples collected during large scale surveys. Samples were
confirmed to belong to honey badgers by camera trapping and genetic analyses. Barely 18 prey
species were detected. The diet primarily consisted of spiny-tailed lizards Uromastyx nigriventris and
U. dispar (72% of volume in scats). Secondary prey items were arthropods (14%), small mammals
(8%), other reptiles (4%), and eggs (0.8%). Some small geographic and temporal differences were
related to the consumption of beetle larvae and rodents as alternative prey. Camera trapping and
distance sampling surveys showed that diel activities did not overlap between honey badgers
and spiny-tailed lizards, suggesting that badgers primarily dig lizards out of their burrows when
inactive. Consumption of spiny lizards by other sympatric meso-carnivores was < 6.1% of occurrence
(223 analyzed scats); the honey badger behaved as a trophic specialist in the Sahara, probably thanks to
exclusive anatomical adaptations for digging. We discuss the role of this circumstance minimizing the
exploitative competition, which could allow the survival of this large mustelid in this low productive
and highly competitive environment.