2008年5月6日 星期二

[知識]靴腳陸龜嗜食天南星科植物的文獻來源


最近兩隻Manouria都出了問題, 原因是吃了不應該吃的食物, 造成脫水和虛弱, 獸醫建議應該讓牠們吃姑婆芋, 聽起來很有趣, 天南星科植物不是被認為是有毒的嗎? Manouria真的會吃嗎? 找到了泰國方面在某研討會發表的論文宣讀記錄如下:

Behavioral ecology of Manouria emys phayrei in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand: preliminary evidence
Pratyaporn Wanchai, Kumthorn Thirakhupt, and Craig Stanford


Despite the large body size and widespread Asian distribution of Manouria emys, it remains one of the most poorly known large tortoises. In this paper we describe our ongoing field study of M. emys, based on fieldwork since 2005 in Thailand. M. emys and its congener M. impressa appear adapted to seasonally wet montane forest environments, with M. impressa typically occurring at higher elevations than M. emys. We report on preliminary field data from a study of M. emys phayrei, in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. The study was begun in 2005, and currently includes ten adult and subadult animals in the 2.0 sq. km. study area. New animals of all age classes are still being found in the study site. The study site is rugged and the tortoises are frequently encountered on slopes of up to 45 degrees. Preliminary ranging data from telemetry suggest that the tortoises spend most of their time near streams, but can travel up to 1 km from water to the highest ridges in the area. Some animals remain stationary under bamboo leaves or tree roots during the coldest months. Other animals remain active during this period, and are found foraging or sitting in streams with air and water temperature approximately 20o C. Diet consists of a variety of herbaceous groundcover plants, in particular Alocasia sp. and Colocasia sp., plus bamboo shoots. Tortoises fed on a variety of plant species. Zingiber sp. and Bambusa sp. were the main foods in dry season, and wet season, respectively. Plants from families Araceae, Gramineae, Zingiberaceae, Musaceae, Marantaceae, Urticaceae, Piperaceae and Commelinaceae were also eaten. Tortoises have been seen feeding on fungi growing on rotting logs in streams. We discuss implications of these results for understanding the biology of the genus Manouria.

也就是說靴腳特別愛吃天南星科植物與竹筍, 另外薑科與竹子分別為乾季及雨季的主食. 另外禾本科草本, 芭蕉科, 竹芋科, 蕁麻科, 胡椒科與鴨跖草科皆是靴腳在天然環境下的菜單. (圖片連結自花東社會教育服務資訊網)