Invertebrates as Prey of Short-Toed Snake-Eagles (Circaetus gallicus)

The Short-toed Snake-Eagle (Circaetus gallicus), hereafter STE, is a medium-sized trans-Saharan migratory raptor present in Europe from March to November (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Migres Foundation unpubl. data). This species has a diet highly specialized on reptiles, as shown by diet analyses conducted during the breeding season using direct observations and the analysis of pellets and prey remains (Amores and Franco 1980, Vlachos and Papageorgiou 1994, Gil and Pleguezuelos 2001, Bakaloudis and Vlachos 2011). In addition to reptiles, these studies also found birds, amphibians, and small mammals as prey, all of them in small numbers and, therefore, considered as secondary food sources. The occurrence of insects in some of these studies (Gil and Pleguezuelos 2001, Bakaloudis and Vlachos 2011) was attributed to stomach content of prey (e.g., snakes and lizards). In the present study, our goal was to...