Salt Drive in the Beaver (Castor Canadensis): an Experimental Assessment with Field Feeding Trials

Strules, Jennifer

Publication:
Salt Drive in the Beaver (Castor Canadensis): an Experimental Assessment with Field Feeding Trials

dc.contributor.advisor	Stephen DeStefano
dc.contributor.author	Strules, Jennifer
dc.contributor.department	University of Massachusetts Amherst
dc.contributor.department	Wildlife & Fisheries Conservation
dc.date	2023-09-23T07:29:27.000
dc.date.accessioned	2024-04-26T21:20:10Z
dc.date.available	2012-08-31T00:00:00Z
dc.date.issued	2012-01-01
dc.date.submitted	September
dc.description.abstract	ABSTRACT SALT DRIVE IN THE BEAVER (Castor canadensis): AN EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT WITH FIELD FEEDING TRIALS SEPTEMBER 2012 JENNIFER E. STRULES, B.M. BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Stephen DeStefano Salt drive is a seasonal phenomenon common to several classes of wild herbivores. Coincident with shifts of nutrient quality when plants resume growth in the spring, sodium is secondarily lost as surplus potassium is excreted. The beaver (Castor canadensis) is an herbivore whose dietary niche closely follows that of other herbivores that are subject to salt drive, but no published studies to date have assessed the likelihood of its occurrence. To quantify if beavers experience seasonal salt drive, we designed a field experiment to measure the foraging responses of beavers to sodium-enhanced foods. We used sodium-treated (salted) and control food items (aspen [Populus tremuloides] and pine [Pinus spp.] sticks) during monthly feeding trials at beaver-occupied wetlands where water lily (Nymphaea spp. and Nuphar spp.) was present and where water lily was absent. If conventional ontogeny of salt drive was operant, we expected to observe greater utility of sodium-treated food items by beavers in May and June. Further, if water lilies supplied beavers with sodium to meet dietary requirements as is widely speculated, we expected foraging responses to sodium-treated food items at wetlands where water lilies were absent to be greater than at wetlands where water lily was present. Aspen was selected by beavers in significantly greater amounts than pine. There was no difference between the mean percent consumed of salted and control aspen sticks by beavers at lily and non-lily wetlands, and no differences in temporal consumption associated with salted or control pine sticks at either wetland type. Salted pine was consumed in greater amounts than unsalted pine. We propose that the gastrointestinal or renal physiology of beavers may predispose them to low solute loss, thereby preventing salt drive.
dc.description.degree	Master of Science (M.S.)
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.7275/3280715
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/47893
dc.relation.url	https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2077&context=theses&unstamped=1
dc.source.status	published
dc.subject	beaver
dc.subject	salt drive
dc.subject	water lily
dc.subject	feeding trial
dc.subject	kidney
dc.subject	Behavior and Ethology
dc.subject	Biology
dc.subject	Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
dc.title	Salt Drive in the Beaver (Castor Canadensis): an Experimental Assessment with Field Feeding Trials
dc.type	campus
dc.type	article
dc.type	thesis
digcom.contributor.author	isAuthorOfPublication\|email:jestrule@eco.umass.edu\|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst\|Strules, Jennifer
digcom.date.embargo	2012-08-31T00:00:00-07:00
digcom.identifier	theses/953
digcom.identifier.contextkey	3280715
digcom.identifier.submissionpath	theses/953
dspace.entity.type	Publication