Experimental analysis of diet specialization in the snail kite: the role of behavioral conservatism.

We examined factors maintaining extreme diet specialization in the snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis), a medium-sized hawk which feed almost exclusively on Pomacea snails, by determining why during some months kites eat crabs (Dilocarcinus dentatus) in the Ilanos of Venezuela. We offered snails and crabs of different sizes to wild free-flying birds to develop estimates for a prey choice model. Handling times of Pomacea doliodes snails averaged 90±39 s and were positively correlated with snail size. Handling times for crabs (x=353±130 s) were significantly longer and exhibited greater variation than for snails, and were not correlated with crab size. Edible crab tissues had greater dry weights and contained more energy (25.37 kJ/g) than tissues of snails (16.91 kJ/g). Total energy of crabs was much greater than that of snails, and total energy of both foods was highly related to body length. We constructed an allometric equation for profitability of snails and crabs. Snails were more profitable than all but the largest crabs, but estimates of variance in profitability were greater for crabs. Predictions from the model were tested by offering crabs that represented equal, greater and much greater profitability than snails, to determine whether kites chose prey according to profitability. Only 15.6% of 289 food items chosen were crabs. Half of the 18 kites tested did not eat crabs and only 3 birds switched from snails to more profitable crabs. Four fledglings showed no preference for snails. The role of neophobia in food choice was investigated by offering unfamiliar snails (Pomacea urceus) to kites. Kites exhibited neophobic behaviors, and 5 of 12 birds chose not to capture P. urceus. Two-thirds of the 12 snails chosen were rejected immediately, but the others were handled efficiently (x=133±89 s). Although morphological adaptations allow kites to specialize on snails, the costs of specialization were overcome for kites when the profitability of alternative food increased sufficiently. Our results suggest a role for behavioral conservatism, in the form of risk-averse foraging and neophobia, in maintaining severe diet specialization in the snail kite.