Foraging behavior of cattle egret, intermediate egret and little egret in UNIMAS Campus, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak

• Main Author: See Choon, Min
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 2017
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/31245/1/See%20Choon%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/31245/

Observational study of foraging behavior provides a more extensive information regarding utilization of habitat to obtain food source. This study was conducted to determine the different foraging techniques and striking efficiency of three egrets species that are commonly sighted in UNIMAS namely little egret, cattle egret and intermediate egret at both grassland and lake edges habitat. A total of 578 observations of egret were made and about 221 observations were analyzed for striking efficiency. All egret species observed show a positive correlation with the number of vehicle passing by the sampling sites. In the context of foraging behavior, it was found that the there are significant differences between egrets and between habitat type. Despite the differences in forage behavior and habitat used, there is not differences in striking efficiency. Pianka index was used to determine the overlap between forage behavior used by egret species and the result showed relative high overlap value (0.969).