PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #29: Animal Population and Community Ecology.
Wednesday, August 8, 2001. Presentation from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM. Exhibition Hall

Raptor Microcommunity Ecology.

Philips, James¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Birds of prey provide one example of the microcommunity web that contributes to biome biocomplexity. Raptors influence biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics through their predatory activity and by providing habitat for microcommunities. Their nests, regurgitated pellets, shed feathers and carcasses are reservoirs for household pests like carpet beetles, clothes moths, and dust mites. The objective of this research was to compare the microcommunities of raptor bodies, nests, molted feathers and regurgitated pellets. Detergent washes were used to extract arthropods from fresh Great Horned Owl and Bald Eagle carcasses. Invertebrates were obtained from samples of Great Horned Owl and American Kestrel nests, owl and eagle pellets, and molted owl feathers through Tullgren funnel extraction. Fungi were cultured from owl pellets. Individual birds of prey hosted up to 19,000 arthropods, and their nests supported over 26,000 arthropods. Individual pellets supported dozens to hundreds of arthropods, while molted feathers supported fewer. The arthropod community on individual birds or molted feather samples was a half dozen species or less, a dozen or more on some pellets, and can exceed 90 species in a nest. Thirteen fungal species were found including keratinolytic, keratinophilic and sugar fungi. These microcommunities all contain parasites, predators, and scavenging decomposers important in nutrient recycling. Animal and plant microcommunities and their endemic species are as endangered as their host is. We remain largely ignorant of the effects of changes on microcommunities, and without this knowledge, our environmental macromanagement remains distressingly crude.

KEY WORDS: raptor, microcommunity, ecology, arthropod