Body size measurements and stomach contents of Alligator mississippiensis on Jekyll Island, Georgia

Human-driven land use change can fundamentally alter ecological communities, especially the diversity and abundance of large-bodied predators. Yet despite the important roles large-bodied predators play in structuring communities through feeding, there have been only a few investigations of how the feeding patterns of large-bodied predators change in human-dominated landscapes. One group of large-bodied predators that has been largely overlooked in the context of land use change is the crocodilians. To help fill these gaps we studied the feeding patterns of juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) on neighboring barrier islands on the southeast coast of Georgia, USA. Jekyll Island has multiple golf courses and substantial amounts of human activity, while Sapelo Island does not have any golf courses and a much smaller amount of human activity. We found that juvenile alligator populations on both islands ate the same types of prey but in vastly different quantities. Sapel...

人类活动驱动的土地利用变化可从根本上改变生态群落，尤其是大型捕食者的物种多样性与种群丰度。尽管大型捕食者通过摄食行为在群落结构塑造中发挥关键作用，但目前针对人类主导景观中大型捕食者摄食模式如何变化的研究仍寥寥无几。在土地利用变化相关研究中，鳄类（crocodilians）这一类群长期被大幅忽视。为填补上述研究空白，我们针对美国佐治亚州东南海岸邻近障壁岛的幼年美洲短吻鳄（Alligator mississippiensis）的摄食模式展开了研究。杰基尔岛（Jekyll Island）拥有多处高尔夫球场且人类活动频繁，而萨佩洛岛（Sapelo Island）无高尔夫球场，人类活动规模也远小于前者。研究发现，两座岛屿上的幼年短吻鳄种群虽捕食同类猎物，但其取食的数量占比却存在显著差异。萨佩...