Food habits for yellow perch Perca flavescens were compared using current and previous diet studies from southern Lake Michigan index sites. Yellow perch were not gape limited but size-selective in consumption of the newly established round goby Neogobius melanostomus. Ingested fish ranged from 7 to 47% of the yellow perch's total length and 2 to 53% of their gape. Currently, yellow perch diets are dominated in volume by fish/fish products (85%), which is double from previous studies. Utilization of zooplankton and insect prey items in the yellow perch diet has decreased to <1% by volume in 2002, contrasting with previous consumption of 4 to 20% and 5 to 17%, respectively, from previous studies during 1971-1993. Yellow perch are exhibiting opportunistic, generalist feeding strategy that incorporates both exotic and native prey items, allowing the population to use multiple prey items with the changing prey base in Lake Michigan. / Department of Biology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/187565 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Truemper, Holly A. |
| Contributors | Lauer, Thomas E |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vii, 93 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us-in |
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