239 ACTA ZOOLOGICA BULGARICA Acta zool. bulg., 69 (2), 2017: 239-248 c-Corresponding author mail: zoolo2012@gmail.com Terrestrial Ecology and Behaviour Research Article Introduction Spatial variation in habitat quality and its demo- graphic consequences have important implications for the regulation of animal populations (BURGESS et al. 2011), although to birds that attendance at parcels highly depends on food resources and their diet (DONALD et al. 2001). Urban develop- ment has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, in- cluding birds (TRYJANOWSKI et al. 2015). The brown-necked raven is a primarily desert and semi-desert bird that avoids areas of cultivation. It is distributed in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, overlapping in some places with the common raven (Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758) and replacing it in the south (MADGE et al. 1996, FOUFOPOULOS & LITINAS 2005). It is one of the typical Eremian region species, occurring through- out the desert belts of range except for north-east Africa and Somalia where the Somali raven, Corvus edithae Lort Phillips, 1895 occurs. The latter has been treated previously as a race of the common raven but now is widely regarded as a distinct spe- cies; it tolerates much more arid conditions that the fan-tailed raven (Corvus rhipidurus Hartert, 1918), another raven that is often observed associating with brown-necked ravens (ANONYME 1998). The Scavenging Diet of Brown-necked Raven Corvus ruicollis Lesson, 1830 (Aves: Corvidae) in a Hyper-arid Region of Central Algerian Sahara Mohamed Belkacem 1* , Faiza Marniche 2 , Djamal edine Berrabah 3 , Felix Manuel Medina 4 , Samia Daoudi-Hacini 1 & Salaheddine Doumandji 1 1 Department of Agricultural and Forest Zoology, National School of Agronomy, Avenue Hassen Badi, El-Harrach, 16200 Algiers, Algeria 2 Laboratory of Zoology, National School of Veterinary, El-Alia, Algeria 3 Scientiic and Technic centre of research in Arid Regions, Biskra, Algeria 4 Unidad de Medio Ambiente, Cabildo Insular de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain Abstract: The diet of the brown-necked raven was studied analysing 175 pellets with 1047 prey items collected in an arid region of Central Algerian Sahara during both breeding and non-breeding seasons. The breed- ing season diet was composed mainly by invertebrates, vertebrates, plants and inert material and the food waste of people (pasta and chicken), which appeared with a high occurrence: 58.8 and 38.2%, re- spectively. Other prey species included the sun spider Galeodes spp. (relative abundance, RA%=7.8%), beetles (Dermestidae RA%=8.6% and Curculionidae RA%=7.7%). Dates were also eaten by ravens and appeared in 26.5% of all the analysed pellets. In the non-breeding season, the diet was based also mainly on the rejected carcasses (chicken and some mammals) but a great number of larvae of Diptera were also observed (RA%=72.9%) as a result of carcasses consumption. The brown-necked raven is an omnivorous scavenger that prefers dump sites for feeding. The food waste of humans and vertebrates carcasses are known to be an easy food resource. It is complemented with other prey items appearing with a less fre- quency, mainly arthropods. While otherwise ravens are highly inluenced by people, they refused eating on their rubbish dumps during the breeding season. Key words: Pellet analysis, feeding ecology, corvid diet, Timimoun, Adrar