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Feeding habits of the horn shark Heterodontus francisci (Girard, 1855) in the northwest of Baja California Sur, Mexico
Author(s) -
CortésFuentes Christian,
SimentalAnguiano María del Rosario,
GalvánMagaña Felipe,
MedinaLópez Marco Antonio
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/jai.14004
Subject(s) - biology , french horn , fishery , psychology , pedagogy
The feeding habits of the horn shark, Heterodontus francisci (Girard, 1855), were examined in the area of Bahía Tortugas, Baja California Sur, Mexico in the spring, summer and fall of 2014. A total of 78 stomachs were collected, of which 46 (59%) contained food and 32 (41%) were empty. According to the percent Index of Relative Importance (%IRI), the most important prey categories in H. francisci's diet were anomurans (66%), cephalopods (7.2%), lobsters (4.7%), fishes (4.2%) and sea urchins (2.3%). The main prey were the anomuran Blepharipoda occidentalis (65.2%), the octopus Octopus bimaculatus (5.4%), the lobster Panulirus interruptus (4.7%) and the sea urchin Echinometra vanbrunti (2.6%). According to the Levin standardized Index ( Bi ), the trophic niche breadth in H. francisci is low ( B i = 0.21), making it a specialist predator. The species was classified as a tertiary consumer (trophic position = 4.06).