Foraging and feeding by bat-eared foxes Otocyon megalotis in the southwestern Kalahari

Abstract

Bat-eared foxes feed in pairs or groups of 3 when utilizing clumped prey in patches, eg termites, and cover 0.87-1.28 km/h. When feeding on dispersed prey, eg insect larvae, they are widely spaced and cover 0.56-0.83 km/h. Food patches are never re-utilized on the same day. Patch size diameter varied from 6-30 m, and patches were 10 to >100 m apart; 1.17-15 min were spent in patches. There were no significant correlations between patch size and distance moved to next patch, or time spent in a patch and distance moved to next patch, or time spent in a patch and patch size. A male and a female had similar numbers of feeding bouts per sampling period during winter or summer, but when accompanied by cubs the male fed less frequently. The male had significantly longer feeding bouts than the female in winter, the reverse applying summer. Optimal foraging probably relates to prey profitability, ie highest ingestion rate. -from Author