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Analysis Of Carbon And Nitrogen Stable Isotope Levels In Side-Blotched Lizards ( Uta Stansburiana ) Fed Varying Diets, Kati Mattinson

Physics Capstone Projects

When attempting to determine the diet of wild animals, a limited number of techniques currently exist. Often, biologists look at the stomach contents or feces of an animal, if they cannot observe what it is eating directly. However, these techniques often cannot be used with reptiles because they may not eat often or may have an empty stomach when the contents of their stomach are examined. Many ecologists have begun to use stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to determine what an animal has eaten. Stable isotopes are useful because unlike radioactive isotopes, stable isotopes do not decay and thus …