Late Winter Dietary Overlap among Greater Rheas and Domestic Herbivores on the Argentinean Flooding Pampa

Late Winter Dietary Overlap among Greater Rheas and Domestic Herbivores on the Argentinean Flooding Pampa

This study evaluates the dietary overlap among greater rheas (Rhea americana L.) sheep and cattle in the Flooding Pampa, Buenos Aires, Argentina during late winter, when is observed the lowest forage availability. The work was carried out with the following forage classes (FC): warm and cool season grasses and forbs (legumes and no-legumes). Diet botanical composition was estimated by microanalysis of faeces. Principal Component Analysis and Kulcyznsky´s index of similarity were used for data analysis. Rhea populations selected diets with higher forb percentages. On the contrary, vegetation structure and their own morpho-physiology conditioned cattle to diets almost exclusively gramineous. Although forbs were more consumed by sheep than by cattle, they do not represent a major portion of sheep diets. In the Flooding Pampa grasslands, the probability of competition for forage between greater rheas and sheep is intermediate, and that between rheas and cattle is low.