BLACK-CHEEKED GNATEATER (CONOPOPHAGA MELANOPS) (AVES: CONOPOPHAGIDAE): A PREDATOR OF SMALL FROGS AND LIZARDS IN THE ATLANTIC FOREST

Authors

  • Fabio Schunck Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos - CBRO http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0974-2655
  • Marcos Antônio Melo Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Ecologia e Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal de São Carlos ‐ UFSCar
  • Leo Ramos Malagoli Núcleo São Sebastião, Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, Fundação para a Conservação e a Produção Florestal do Estado de São Paulo Laboratório de Herpetologia, Departamento de Biodiversidade e Centro de Aquicultura (CAUNESP), Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58843/ornneo.vi.811

Keywords:

Brazil, São Paulo, Serra do Mar, Curucutu, anuran amphibians, natural history

Abstract

The Conopophagidae family has only one report of predation of small vertebrates, being an anuran observed for the genus Conopophaga. Here, we present a record of predation on a small anuran amphibian by Conopophaga melanops. The record was made in 2008 in a Southeast Brazil. A recently dead individual of Fritziana mitus, with several lesions on its body, was observed next to an adult female of C. melanops captured in a mist net. We found only two records of predation of small vertebrates by C. melanops, being an anuran and a lizard. The three available records occurred during the reproductive period of C. melanops, indicating that the prey may serve as a resource to feed the young. This type of behavior, as well as the predator-prey relationship, should be better investigated in the field, especially in the Atlantic Forest, region with a high bird and frog diversity.

Author Biography

Fabio Schunck, Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos - CBRO

Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos - CBRO

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Published

06-08-2022

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 2

Section

Short Communications

License

This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License  (CC BY), that allows others unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction, providing the original author and source are credited.