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Titre : Determination of rodent diets using a microtechnique of fecal analysis

Auteur : Brand, Marina Riley

Université de soutenance : University of Arizona

Grade : Master of Science (MS) 1975

Résumé
A microtechnique of fecal analysis is used to determine rodent diets. Preliminary analysis of fecal pellets collected from Perognathus hispidus on a live-trap grid located on The Research Ranch near Elgin, Arizona, indicated that the technique may not be reliable when applied to seed-eating rodents. Several experiments were conducted to formulate a standardized procedure for testing the digestibility of seeds present in the diets of P_. hispidus. A non-linear relationship between the proportion, by weight, of a given seed species ingested and the proportion of fragments of that seed species recorded in the feces is formulated to account for the differential digestibility of seed species. This relationship involves the calculation of a "coefficient of digestibility" and these coefficients were computed for three forb seed species found in the diets of P. hispidus. It is concluded that there is too much error involved in the technique for it to be useful in determining the relative proportions of seed species present in the diets of seed-eating rodents.

Mots clés : Rodents. ; Animals — Food. ; Feces — Analysis.

Présentation

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