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Résumé :
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We studied the diet and food composition of Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, that were stranded along the northern and southern Tunisian coasts. Eleven mature and immature males and females, ranging from 200 to 385 cm in total length (TL), were examined to analyse their stomach contents. The analysis revealed that the diet primarily consisted of fish, where the percentage of occurrence (%O) was 70.4 and relative importance index (%IRI) was 76.5, followed by molluscs with %O=25.9, and %IRI= 23.3%, cephalopods, with %O=20.4 and %IRI=22.4, and crustaceans with %O=3.72 and %IRI=0.1. On average, each sample contained 5.2±2.1 food items. Moreover, a close correlation was found between TL and the combined length of all prey items. However, there was no correlation between the trophic levels and either sex or maturity stages. Additionally, apparent differences were observed in the prey species consumed by stranded dolphins across the seven geographic sites along the northern and southern Tunisian coasts, with the highest consumption recorded in the northern sites and the lowest in the southern ones.
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