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Active Diet Selection or Passive Reflection of Changing Food Availability: The Underwater Foraging Behaviour of Canvasback Ducks

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Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIG,volume 20))

Abstract

An omnivore is an animal with morphological and physiological adaptations that enable it to exist on plant and animal foods (Westoby 1978), although at any given time the diet of an individual may not be mixed. Canvasback ducks (Aythya valisineria) are omnivores that dive and search for prey by using tactile cues. Few investigators have studied tactile predators (see Elner and Hughes 1978, Hughes 1979); fewer still have studied the foraging strategies of omnivores.

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ball, J.P. (1990). Active Diet Selection or Passive Reflection of Changing Food Availability: The Underwater Foraging Behaviour of Canvasback Ducks. In: Hughes, R.N. (eds) Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection. NATO ASI Series, vol 20. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75118-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75118-9_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75120-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75118-9

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