Istvan SAS, Severus Daniel MARCOV COVACIU, Alexandru STRUGARIU, Anamaria DAVID, Cristina ILEA

Food habit of Rana (Pelophylax) kl. esculenta females in a new recorded E-system population from a forested habitat in nort-western Romania

This is the first record of a green frog Rana (Pelophylax) kl. esculenta population from the E-system in the north-western part of Romania. From April to July 2005 we analysed the trophic spectrum of 84 Rana kl. esculenta females, extracting and identifying a total number of 801 prey items. Beside animal preys, plant materials and remains of shed skin were identified in the stomach contents. We did not find any Rana kl. esculenta individuals with empty stomachs. The importance of different animal prey categories varied in certain periods of the study. In the stomach contents collected in July we identified 2 adult amphibians. The analysed Rana kl. esculenta individuals forage mainly on land. The abundance of aquatic preys was higher only at the first sampling event.

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