Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok V. - Natura Somogyiensis 17. (Kaposvár, 2010)
LANSZKI, J., SÁRDI, B., & L. SZÉLES, G.: Egy kézből nevelt nyest (Martes foina) táplálék-összetétele az elengedést és önállóvá válást követően egy hazai faluban
313 Therefore some of these food taxa had been available for it even before release. Primary animal food type was small mammals (O: 26.2% and B: 40 .8%, Table 1) as was also found in other studies (DELIBES 1978, RASMUSSEN and MADSEN 1985, TESTER 1986, GOSZCZYNSKI 1986, SERAFINI and LOVARI 1993, LODÉ 1994) and in the village study (LANSZKI 2003). From small mammals the human-linked or habitat generalist brown rat, house mouse and Apodemus spp. were found in the largest ratio of consumed biomass. The hand-reared stone marten preyed on wild rats before becoming independent (spontaneous preying), which it did not consume at that time. However, birds and invertebrates were relatively frequently consumed (25% within preys), but biomass ratio of these food types was low (B: 5.6%). Before becoming independent it already raided sparrow nests under the gutter (spontaneous preying but the young were not consumed). No domestic animal remains were found in scat samples, in spite of the fact that poultry is kept at neighbouring houses (in the whole village) and that it had consumed poultry eggs before becoming independent. In the scats, four originally indigestible materials occurred, such as pieces of brick scrap, salami husk, sponge and rag. The fly pupa indicates feeding on garbage, which makes the utilization of garbage as food source probable. The hand-reared stone marten consumed mainly small-sized (< 50 g, O: 92.9% and B: 64.9%) and terrestrial prey species (O: 75% and B: 94.4%) compared to other martens examined in the region of South-Transdanubia (overview in LANSZKI et al. 2009). The diet composition of the hand-reared and released stone marten differed significantly (Chi-square test: x 24 = 19.87, P<0.001, Fig. 1) from those stone marten which had earlier used the loft of this same house in Fonó (autumn and winter period of 1991/1992, LANSZKI 1993), and also differed from those stone marten which lived inside the village or lived in the surrounding agricultural area (LANSZKI 2003) = 32.18, P<0.001 and X 26 = 19.68, P<0.001, respectively). In the samples collected from these in the autumn and winter of 1991-1992 in the same area (n= 43 scats and 5 prey remains) the following food taxa were found: 11 small mammals (rodents and insectivores), 17 singing birds (16 Passer spp), 17 domestic animals (8 poultry, 2 rabbits, 7 poultry eggs), 14 insects (mainly carabid beetles) and 52 plants (mainly grapes). In addition originally indigestible materials (10 cases) occurred. The differences realised in the feeding habits mainly originated from the experience that the hand-reared and released stone marten did not consume domestic animals. Standardized trophic niche breadth value (Table 1) was similar to those stone martens which lived in other villages in Somogy county (LANSZKI et al. 2009), but was narrower in comparison with martens which lived before on the same site (B A: 0.40 and 0.58 on the basis of %0 J and %0 2, LANSZKI 1993). In conclusion, this hand-reared and released stone marten was capable of searching for food independently. Its trophic niche was relatively narrow, and its food consisted mainly of fruits and small mammals. We did not find any remains of domestic animals in the samples. Acknowledgements Thanks to Grace Yoxon for the linguistic help.
