An opportunistic predation by Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) was observed in south Texas on 31 Oct 2019. The Great Blue Heron had already captured the Eastern cottontail rabbit at the first observation but the maneuvering process, killing, and ingestion were recorded photographically, which make this observation unique even though this might constitute the second report on Great Blue Heron eating Eastern cottontail rabbits

Cifuentes-Lujan, J. E.

Cintra-Buenrostro, Carlos E.

English

Scholarworks@UTRGV Univ. of Texas RioGrande Valley

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ScholarWorks @ UTRGV School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations College of Sciences 12-2019 PREDATION OF EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT (SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS) BY GREAT BLUE HERON (ARDEA HERODIAS) Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, carlos.cintra@utrgv.edu J. E. Cifuentes-Lujan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/eems_fac  Part of the Earth Sciences Commons, Environmental Sciences Commons, and the Marine Biology Commons Recommended Citation Cintra-Buenrostro, Carlos E., and Jessica E. Cifuentes-Lujan. "PREDATION OF EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT (SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS) BY GREAT BLUE HERON (ARDEA HERODIAS)." TEXAS ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY 52 (2019): 17-20. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Sciences at ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. For more information, please contact justin.white@utrgv.edu, william.flores01@utrgv.edu. PREDATION OF EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT (SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS) BY GREAT BLUE HERON (ARDEA HERODIAS) C.E. Cintra-Buenrostro1*, J.E. Cifuentes-Lujan2 1 Ocean, Coastal Environmental and Ecological Assessment Lab., School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX USA 78520; 2Servi- cios Integrates Pro-Ambiente, Laguna Vista, TX USA 78578 ABSTRACT.—An opportunistic predation by Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) was observed in south Texas on 31 Oct 2019. The Great Blue Heron had already captured the Eastern cottontail rabbit at the first observation but the maneuvering process, killing, and ingestion were recorded photographically, which make this observation unique even though this might constitute the second report on Great Blue Heron eating Eastern cottontail rabbits. KEYWORDS: Opportunistic Predation, Predator-Prey Interaction, Ardeidae, Leporidae, North America On 31 October 2019 at 1232 h (CST) JCL heard a worry cry in Laguna Vista, Texas (26° 06’ N and 97° 18’ W), she went to inspect what have emitted such sound. It turned out, it was an Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) recently caught by an adult Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), which most likely had obtained its prey by an stand and wait position sensu Kushlan (1976). The prey capture behavior is inferred from multiple (> 100) observations of the Great Blue Herons upright stand and wait (Kushlan op. cit.) individuals in the vicinity of the artificial pond were the incident happened. It is well-known that Great Blue Heron primarily feed on fishes (Butler 1992) but their diet varies extensively with adults exhibiting more opportunistic behaviors (Butler 1997). Among the Great Blue Heron’s diversified diet are— aside from Osteichthyes—Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) (Arnett 1951 in Stolen 2001); small mammals, frogs and grasshoppers (Pfeifer 1979); marine invertebrates, i.e., crabs, isopods, mud shrimp (Verbeek and Butler 1989); small mammals mainly Townsend’s vole (Sorex vagrans) (Butler 1997); Pied-Billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) (Stolen 2001); and Chondrichthyes i.e., Atlantic stingray (Hypanus sabinus) (Ajemian et al. 2011). In addition, Great Blue Herons are known for killing but not necessarily consuming Eared Grebe (.Podiceps nigricollis) (Rivers and Kuehn 2006); and Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) (Hukee 2016). METHODS Upon observing the captured eastern cottontail rabbit by the Great Blue Heron, JCL went to pick up the camera Canon EOS Rebel T7i with 75-300 mm lens and immediately started taking photographs. RESULTS The Great Blue Heron was first observed at 1232 h as it already had captured the Eastern cottontail rabbit which emitted its worry cry, and held its prey by the rostrum (Fig. la); the Great Blue Heron flew ~ 15 m across the pond upon noticing the observer (Fig. lb). Once on the other side, the Great Blue Heron started to subdue the Eastern cottontail rabbit by grasping its head, the Eastern cottontail rabbit was maneuvered with the beaks until the Great Blue Heron faced its rostrum, then it was thrown to the floor (Fig. lc-f), where the Great Blue Heron followed with a sharp beak blow to its head (Fig. lg); throwing was repeated for about 2 min, with failed escape attempts (Fig. lh) until the Eastern cottontail rabbit appeared to be death (Fig. li). At this point the Great Blue Heron took its victim and flew even farther away (Fig. lj) — 90 m, and started to consume its victim head first (Fig. Ik) at 1240 h while in the water. DISCUSSION To the authors awareness the only report available of the observed interaction between an Eastern "Corresponding author: carlos.cintra@utrgv.edu Bull. Texas Omith. Soc. 52(1-2): 2019 18 Figure L Photographic sequence of a) captured eastern cottontail rabbit (,Sylvilagus floridanus = ECR) by Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias = GBH), b) flown GBH, c-f) maneuvering and throwing, g) beak blow to ECR’s head, h) failed escape attempt by ECR, i) death of ECR, j) flying GBH, and k) consumption. Photos by JCL. Bull. Texas Ornith. Soc. 52(1-2): 2019 19 cottontail rabbit and the Great Blue Heron, narrated one juvenile Eastern cottontail rabbit captured by a male radio-tagged Great Blue Heron out of the four individual Great Blue Herons studied by Peifer (1979). Although not confirmed the consumption of the Eastern cottontail rabbit by its predator might be assumed, as the author reported seeing the radio-tagged male feeding on fishes, as well as considered the rabbit - and all other organisms that were consumed by it - forage species. As a side note, the meaning of forage species is beyond what predators eat, as forage species depletion must have a detrimental effect on its consumers (Fujiwara et al. 2016), and doubtfully Eastern cottontail rabbits are forage species for Great Blue Heron given their varied diet. However, the use of foraging seems to be widespread in ornithological studies (see for example some of the titles reported in the literature cited). Noteworthy two out of the four Great Blue Herons studied by Peifer (op. cit.) fed exclusively on fishes, another individual captured three mammalian species: thirteen-lined ground squirrel (.Ictidomys tridecemlineatus), Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), and prairie pocket gopher ('Geomys bursarius), but were not the majority of its potential diet which consisted of fishes; while the potential predator of one Eastern cottontail rabbit also captured an Eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) as well as unidentified grasshopper species and 8 leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) with a total of 16 mammals, 10+ grasshopers, and 25+ bullhead (Ameiurus melas). Although the Great Blue Heron with the smallest feeding territory in Peifer (op. cit.) study showed the greater variation on its diet likely supporting Mac Arthur (1972) hypothesis of a broader diet for animals in “unproductive” environments, the hypothesis does not hold as the individual with the second smallest feeding territory fed exclusively on two fishes: bullhead and sunfish (Lepomis sp.). Even though, the potential consumption of one juvenile Eastern cottontail rabbit by one of the Great Blue Herons aforementioned might be the first record, the observation reported here, 40 years apart, might be unique (at least to the authors awareness) as it is documented with still images. Aside from some of the first case consumption scenarios of a given prey mentioned in the introduction, and the different attempts of killing but unsuccessfully consuming Grebes, Herons are known to use tools for fishing purposes. For example, Ardea herodias occidentalis was observed using a stick to lure prey (Evans and Jackson 2019), under the passive bait fishing category sensu Gavin and Solomon (2009). Are Great Blue Herons learning how to use tools and/or forced to look for alternative prey as urbanization takes place? Bread—undoubtedly a wise monkey produced item—has been used as bait for fishing by Great Blue Heron (Zickefoose and Davis 1998), also under the passive bait-fishing category of Gavin and Solomon (op. cit.), as the bird benefitted from the humans feeding bread to Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) by capturing four fishes (Zickefoose and Davis op. cit.). Seventy out of 93 strikes in 12 min at plant debris by an immature Great Blue Heron were successful, perhaps three of those strikes captured fishes but no confirmation of any prey was possible, bill-stabbing resulted in even stick manipulation once; the stick was maneuvered in the beaks to simulate ingestion during this “practice” foraging behavior (Davis 2001). Evans and Jackson (op. cit.) suggested that individuals of the species could be exposed initially to human bait-fishing through observation and leam to at least bait-fish passively. The potential diversification of diet might not necessary follow habitat degradation as urbanization takes place, because during harsher conditions (i.e., winter) Great Blue Herons are known to augment their diet by consuming small grassland mammals (Butler 1997). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank an anonymous reviewer for constructive criticism. LITERATURE CITED Ajemian, M. J., D. Dolan, W. M. Graham, and S. P. Powers. 2011. First evidence of elasmobranch predation by a waterbird: stingray attack and consumption by the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). Waterbirds 34:117-120. Butler, R. W. 1992. Great Blue Heron. Pages 1-20 in The birds of North America, No. 25 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Editors). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia. Butler, R. W. 1997. Foraging, Food, and Diet. Pages 49-59 in The Great Blue Heron: A natural history and ecology of a seashore sentinel. University of British Columbia Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Davis, W. E. Jr. 2001. “Practice” foraging by a sub-adult Great Blue Heron. Florida Field Naturalist 29:88-89. Bull. Texas Omith. Soc. 52(1-2): 2019 20 Fujiwara, M., C. Zhou, C. Acres, and F. Martinez- Andrade. 2016. Interaction between Penaeid shrimp and fish populations in the Gulf of Mexico: importance of shrimp as forage species. PLoS One ll:e0166479. https://10.1371/journal.pone.0166479. Gavin, M. C., and J. N. Solomon. 2009. Active and passive bait-fishing by Black-Crowned Night Herons. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 121:844-845. Hukee, B. E. 2016. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) captures and kills Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus). Florida Field Naturalist 44:113-115. Kushlan, J. A. 1976. Feeding behavior of North American Herons. Auk 93:86-94. MacArthur, R. H. 1972. Geographical Ecology. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. Peifer, R. W. 1979. Great Blue Herons foraging for small mammals. Wilson Bulletin 91:630-631. Rivers, J. W., and M. J. Kuehn. 2006. Predation of Eared Grebe by Great Blue Heron. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 118:112-113. Stolen, E. D. 2001. Great Blue Heron eating a Pied- Billed Grebe. Florida Field Naturalist 29:87. Verbeek, N. A. M., and R. W. Butler. 1989. Feeding ecology of shoreline birds in the Strait of Georgia. Pages 74-81 in The Ecology and Status of Marine and Shoreline Birds in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Canadian Wildlife Services Special Publication, Ottawa, Canada. Zickefoose, J., and W. E. Davis Jr. 1998. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) uses bread as bait for fish. Colonial Waterbirds 31:87-88. Bull. Texas Ornith. Soc. 52(1-2): 2019 

PREDATION OF EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT (SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS) BY GREAT BLUE HERON (ARDEA HERODIAS)

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1348&context=eems_fac

PREDATION OF EASTERN COTTONTAIL RABBIT (SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS) BY GREAT BLUE HERON (ARDEA HERODIAS)

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