Predation by birds as a factor influencing the demography of an intertidal shrimp

Extensive seagrass beds of Western Port, in southeastern Australia, are accessible to predatory wading birds for a large part of the tidal cycle. Though the role of birds as predators in seagrass systems is generally dismissed as insignificant, little is known about rates of prey intake. Here we examine the rates of predation by wading birds on a major epibenthic invertebrate associated with eelgrass beds in Western Port, the palaemonid shrimp Macrobrachium intermedium Stimpson.