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12 September 2024 Stable Isotope Analysis Reveals Intensive Exploitation of Pet Food by the Newly Established Oriental Magpie Pica serica Population in Hokkaido, Japan
Narumi Oyake, Masahiro Fujioka, Rumiko Nakashita, Sayaka Mori
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Abstract

Although the Oriental Magpie Pica serica does not occur naturally in Japan, a small population has been established in the urban and suburban areas of Tomakomai City, southern Hokkaido since the 1990s. Here, we estimated the proportion of pet food in the magpie diet by using stable isotope analysis to evaluate its contribution to the successful establishment of the population. For tissue analysis, we collected magpie eggshell membranes and feathers, which can indicate the magpie diet during the egg-laying period (spring) and the moulting season (summer to early autumn), respectively. We collected ground-dwelling invertebrates from the field and several commercial pet food varieties as putative food sources. Pet food was isotopically distinct from invertebrates in both δ13C (–19.7 ‰ vs. –27.3 ‰, respectively) and δ15N (4.0 ‰ and 2.6 ‰, respectively). Our stable isotope analysis with a Bayesian mixed model framework, MixSIAR, showed that the proportion of pet food in the magpie diet was approximately 44.6% and 21.8% based on the eggshell membrane and feather samples, respectively. These estimates imply that the Oriental Magpie has succeeded in establishing a population in Tomakomai by exploiting pet food.

Narumi Oyake, Masahiro Fujioka, Rumiko Nakashita, and Sayaka Mori "Stable Isotope Analysis Reveals Intensive Exploitation of Pet Food by the Newly Established Oriental Magpie Pica serica Population in Hokkaido, Japan," Ornithological Science 23(2), 77-89, (12 September 2024). https://doi.org/10.2326/osj.23.77
Received: 4 August 2023; Accepted: 22 January 2024; Published: 12 September 2024
KEYWORDS
Newly established population
Oriental Magpie
stable isotope analysis
Stealing pet food
urbanisation
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