TROPHIC INTERACTION BETWEEN BUBO VIRGINIANUS (GMELIN, 1788) (STRIGIFORMES; STRIGIDAE) AND JACANA JACANA (LINNAEUS, 1766) (CHARADRIIFORMES; JACANIDAE) IN THE SOUTHERN PANTANAL OF MATO GROSSO DO SUL
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Bubo virginianus (Gmelin, 1788), commonly known as the Great Horned Owl, exhibits a wide distribution throughout the Americas, ranging from northern Canada to southern South America. Despite its extensive range, many aspects of its natural history remain poorly understood, particularly within Brazil and the Neotropical region. Most ecological studies have focused on its feeding habits, revealing a generalist and opportunistic diet dominated by birds and mammals, with variations related to prey availability. During a nocturnal herpetofaunal survey conducted on August 25, 2025, at approximately 23:00 h, in a rural area of Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, we documented a trophic interaction between an adult B. virginianus and a juvenile Jacana jacana (Linnaeus, 1766). The owl was observed perched atop a dead tree holding the prey in its talons before flying away. The event occurred near a wetland area characterized by dense aquatic vegetation, a suitable habitat for J. jacana, which had been previously observed foraging with chicks during daylight hours. Large owls such as B. virginianus have high energetic demands, requiring extensive foraging areas that vary according to prey abundance and habitat structure. In the Pantanal, the diversity of microhabitats and high availability of prey, particularly small mammals and birds, may reduce intraspecific competition and foraging range requirements. This observation represents the first documented record of predation on J. jacana by B. virginianus in the southern Pantanal. Opportunistic records such as this provide valuable contributions to the understanding of predator–prey interactions involving top trophic-level species, complementing indirect dietary studies based on pellet or fecal analyses. The record expands the known prey spectrum of B. virginianus in the Neotropical region, offering new insights into its feeding ecology and the ecological dynamics of wetland environments in the Pantanal biome.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".