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Tracking neighbours promotes the coexistence of large carnivores.

ABSTRACT: The study of competition and coexistence among similar interacting species has long been considered a cornerstone in evolutionary and community ecology. However, understanding coexistence remains a challenge. Using two similar and sympatric competing large carnivores, Eurasian lynx and wolverines, we tested the hypotheses that tracking among heterospecifics and reactive responses to potential risk decreases the probability of an agonistic encounter when predators access shared food resources, thus facilitating coexistence. Lynx and wolverines actively avoided each other, with the degree of avoidance being greater for simultaneous than time-delayed predator locations. Wolverines reacted to the presence of lynx at relatively short distances (mean: 383 m). In general, lynx stayed longer, and were more stationary, around reindeer carcasses than wolverines. However, when both predators were present at the same time around a carcass, lynx shortened their visits, while wolverine behavior did not change. Our results support the idea that risk avoidance is a reactive, rather than a predictive, process. Since wolverines have adapted to coexist with lynx, exploiting lynx-killed reindeer carcasses while avoiding potential encounters, the combined presence of both predators may reduce wolverine kill rate and thus the total impact of these predators on semi-domestic reindeer in Scandinavia. Consequently, population management directed at lynx may affect wolverine populations and human-wolverine conflicts.

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Bao JV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4793264 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tracking neighbours promotes the coexistence of large carnivores.

López-Bao José Vicente JV Mattisson Jenny J Persson Jens J Aronsson Malin M Andrén Henrik H

Scientific reports 20160316

The study of competition and coexistence among similar interacting species has long been considered a cornerstone in evolutionary and community ecology. However, understanding coexistence remains a challenge. Using two similar and sympatric competing large carnivores, Eurasian lynx and wolverines, we tested the hypotheses that tracking among heterospecifics and reactive responses to potential risk decreases the probability of an agonistic encounter when predators access shared food resources, th ...[more]

PMID: 26979573

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Project description:BackgroundSeveral felids are endangered and threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. Establishing geographic origin of tissues of endangered species is thus crucial for wildlife crime investigations and effective conservation strategies. As shown in other species, stable isotope analysis of hydrogen and oxygen in hair (?D(h), ?(18)O(h)) can be used as a tool for provenance determination. However, reliably predicting the spatial distribution of ?D(h) and ?(18)O(h) requires confirmation from animal tissues of known origin and a detailed understanding of the isotopic routing of dietary nutrients into felid hair.Methodology/findingsWe used coupled ?D(h) and ?(18)O(h) measurements from the North American bobcat (Lynx rufus) and puma (Puma concolor) with precipitation-based assignment isoscapes to test the feasibility of isotopic geo-location of felidae. Hairs of felid and rabbit museum specimens from 75 sites across the United States and Canada were analyzed. Bobcat and puma lacked a significant correlation between H/O isotopes in hair and local waters, and also exhibited an isotopic decoupling of ?(18)O(h) and ?D(h). Conversely, strong ?D and ?(18)O coupling was found for key prey, eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus; hair) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; collagen, bone phosphate).Conclusions/significancePuma and bobcat hairs do not adhere to expected pattern of H and O isotopic variation predicted by precipitation isoscapes for North America. Thus, using bulk hair, felids cannot be placed on ?(18)O and ?D isoscapes for use in forensic investigations. The effective application of isotopes to trace the provenance of feline carnivores is likely compromised by major controls of their diet, physiology and metabolism on hair ?(18)O and ?D related to body water budgets. Controlled feeding experiments, combined with single amino acid isotope analysis of diets and hair, are needed to reveal mechanisms and physiological traits explaining why felid hair does not follow isotopic patterns demonstrated in many other taxa.

Project description:One of the classic approaches in environmental economics is the environmental Kuznets curve, which predicts that when a national economy grows from low to medium levels, threats to biodiversity conservation increase, but they decrease when the economy moves from medium to high. We evaluated this approach by examining how population densities of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were related to the national economy in 24 European countries.We used forest proportions, the existence of a compensation system, and country group (former socialist countries, Nordic countries, other countries) as covariates in a linear model with the first- and the second-order polynomial terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Country group was treated as a random factor, but remained insignificant and was ignored. All models concerning brown bear and wolf provided evidence that population densities decreased with increasing GDP, but densities of lynx were virtually independent of GDP. Models for the wolf explained >80% of the variation in densities, without a difference between the models with all independent variables and the model with only GDP. For the bear, the model with GDP alone accounted for 10%, and all three variables 33%, of the variation in densities.Wolves exhibit a higher capacity for dispersal and reproduction than bear or lynx, but still exists at the lowest densities in wealthy European countries. We are aware that several other factors, not available for our models, influenced large carnivore densities. Based on the pronounced differences among large carnivore species in their countrywide relationships between densities and GDP, and a strikingly high relationship for the gray wolf, we suggest that our results reflected differences in political history and public acceptance of these species among countries. The compensation paid for the damages caused by the carnivores is not a key to higher carnivore densities, but might be necessity for the presence of large carnivores to be accepted in countries with high GDP.

Project description:Sabre-like canines clearly have the potential to inflict grievous wounds leading to massive blood loss and rapid death. Hypotheses concerning sabretooth killing modes include attack to soft parts such as the belly or throat, where biting deep is essential to generate strikes reaching major blood vessels. Sabretoothed carnivorans are widely interpreted as hunters of larger and more powerful prey than that of their present-day nonsabretoothed relatives. However, the precise functional advantage of the sabretooth bite, particularly in relation to prey size, is unknown. Here, we present a new point-to-point bite model and show that, for sabretooths, depth of the killing bite decreases dramatically with increasing prey size. The extended gape of sabretooths only results in considerable increase in bite depth when biting into prey with a radius of less than ?10 cm. For sabretooths, this size-reversed functional advantage suggests predation on species within a similar size range to those attacked by present-day carnivorans, rather than "megaherbivores" as previously believed. The development of the sabretooth condition appears to represent a shift in function and killing behaviour, rather than one in predator-prey relations. Furthermore, our results demonstrate how sabretoothed carnivorans are likely to have evolved along a functionally continuous trajectory: beginning as an extension of a jaw-powered killing bite, as adopted by present-day pantherine cats, followed by neck-powered biting and thereafter shifting to neck-powered shear-biting. We anticipate this new insight to be a starting point for detailed study of the evolution of pathways that encompass extreme specialisation, for example, understanding how neck-powered biting shifts into shear-biting and its significance for predator-prey interactions. We also expect that our model for point-to-point biting and bite depth estimations will yield new insights into the behaviours of a broad range of extinct predators including therocephalians (gorgonopsian + cynodont, sabretoothed mammal-like reptiles), sauropterygians (marine reptiles) and theropod dinosaurs.

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Tracking neighbours promotes the coexistence of large carnivores.

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Tracking neighbours promotes the coexistence of large carnivores.

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