Cooper Susan M, Owen-Smith Norman, Bryant John P
Resource Ecology Group, Department of Botany, University of the Witwateranand, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, 99775-0180, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA.
Oecologia. 1988 Apr;75(3):336-342. doi: 10.1007/BF00376934.
We investigated seasonal changes in food selection by hand-reared kudus and impalas in savanna vegetation in northern Transvaal, South Africa. The acceptability of the leaves of woody plants to these animals was compared with leaf concentrations of nutrients, fibre components and old leaf phenophases. No consistently significant correlation was found between acceptability and any single chemical factor. Based on an a priori palatability classification, discriminant function analysis separated relatively palatable species from unpalatable species in terms of a linear combination of protein and condensed tannin concentrations. The high acceptability of certain otherwise unpalatable species during the new leaf phenophase was related to elevation of protein levels relative to condensed tannin contents. Species were added to the diet during the dry season approximately in the order of their relative protein-condensed tannin difference.
我们研究了在南非德兰士瓦省北部稀树草原植被中人工饲养的捻角羚和黑斑羚食物选择的季节性变化。将木本植物叶片对这些动物的可接受性与叶片中的营养成分、纤维成分及老叶物候期进行了比较。未发现可接受性与任何单一化学因素之间存在始终显著的相关性。基于先验适口性分类，判别函数分析根据蛋白质和缩合单宁浓度的线性组合，将相对适口的物种与不适口的物种区分开来。某些在新叶物候期原本不适口的物种具有较高的可接受性，这与蛋白质水平相对于缩合单宁含量的升高有关。在旱季，物种大致按照其相对蛋白质 - 缩合单宁差异的顺序被添加到食物中。
