Garbage in the diet of #carnivores in an agricultural area

#Human food #waste is considered to be richer in carbohydrates, lipids and proteins than most natural food supplies; however, it is very well digested in scats. So, as an indication of this kind of food in the diet, authors have used indigestible, anthropogenic origin element found in faeces (e.g., glass, plastic, rubber, etc.).

There are few studies discussing the importance of garbage in the diet of mammalian predators living in farmland; definitely, most focus on this issue in urban areas. Authors studied the contribution of garbage in the diet of raccoon dog, red fox, marten, polecat, stoat, American mink & Eurasian otter in the agricultural areas of western Poland. In addition, they examined the spatial changes in the diet of red fox and polecat.

Jankowiak, Ł., Malecha, A. & Krawczyk, A. (2017). Garbage in the diet of carnivores in an agricultural area. European Journal of Ecology, 2(1), pp. 81-86. doi:10.1515/eje-2016-0009

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The largest contribution of #garbage was found in scats of #raccoon dog (8.8%), red fox (4.8%) and marten (4.3%). The diet of polecat, stoat and Eurasian otter contained 2.5%, 1.7% and 0.2% garbage items, respectively. The most frequent item was plastic. The study has shown that garbage consumption by red fox and polecat was greater closer to human settlements. The results reveal a continuous gradient in the garbage consumption that corresponds with the degree of synanthropization of particular species.