Ectoparasite infestation of understory birds in the reserva nacional allpahuayo mishana - comparisons in between forest types

• Autores: Judit Ungvari Martin
• Localización: The Biologist, ISSN-e 1994-9073, ISSN 1816-0719, Vol. 10, Nº. Extra 2 (julio-diciembre), 2012
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • One of the world.s most species-rich bird communities can be found in Amazonian forests; often times these forests are characterized by different soil types and the unique composition of plants growing on them provide a range of habitats. We sampled understory birds across sites in the Peruvian Amazon that differ in soil type: white sand forests and clay rich terra firme forests. We studied the bird communities inhabiting the understory of different forest types in the Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo Mishana. Our general study has focused on avian ecology, but we have noticed that the captured birds have different levels of ectoparasite infestation in different forest types. We have crudely quantified the amounts of parasites visible in the feathers and skin on captured birds (we did not collect the birds, so quantifying parasite loads has been done my visual scanning). We also collected ectoparasite samples using the dust-ruffling method. We predicted that bird communities on relatively unproductive sandier soils would have higher parasite loads, especially ant followers and terrestrial insectivores. Our results indicate that there is a difference in the prevalence of chiggers and other ectoparasites between different forest types and between different bird species. Many guilds showed mixed patterns.