FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF AMPHIBIANS IN THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF BENIN, BENIN CITY

ABSTRACT

Amphibians play a variety of roles within natural ecosystems, and their decline could have negative effects on other species and ecosystem functions. The study of food and feeding habits of amphibians is important, considering the concerns regarding global decline of amphibian population as it also helps to understand their role in the ecosystem as both predator and prey, their interaction with other species and their overall impact on the food web. This study was aimed at determining the dietary habits of Sclerophrys maculatus (the amphibian found) in the Faculty of Engineering in the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The study aims to comparatively analyse the diet of amphibians recovered from Faculty of Engineering of the University of Benin, Benin City; to determine their dietary content and also to determine the overlap in their diet. A total of thirty six (36) specimens of Sclerophrys maculatus were examined for their food and feeding habit. One hundred and twenty one (121) prey items were recovered from the stomachs of thirty one (31) individuals of S. maculatus. Majority of the prey items in this study were insects which made up 95.0% of the prey items. Out of the 36 stomachs of Sclerophrys maculatus analysed 13.89% had empty stomach. In this study, diets of Sclerophrys maculatus were reported as arthropods belonging to the orders; Diplopoda, Orthoptera, Isoptera, Isopoda, Polydesmida, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera and annelids belonging to the order Lumbriculida. The most abundant prey item as well as the most frequent prey item was Hymenoptera with 71.9% and a frequency score of 0.9 respectively. The rate of feeding activities show that S. maculatus had a feeding rate of 86.1%.