scholarly journals Spotted hyaena survival and density in a lion depleted ecosystem: The effects of prey availability, humans and competition between large carnivores in African savannahs

2016 ◽  
Vol 201 ◽  
pp. 348-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jassiel M'soka ◽  
Scott Creel ◽  
Matthew S. Becker ◽  
Egil Droge
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Large Carnivores

scholarly journals Carnivore ecology and conservation : implications for tiger conservation and management in Nepal

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hemanta Kafley
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Prey Abundance ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Conservation Programs ◽  
Intraguild Interactions ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
Tiger Conservation ◽  
Conservation And Management

In human-dominated landscapes, conservation and management of large carnivores has been a formidable challenge due to habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss, wildlife persecution, and poaching. Consequently, wide-ranging species like tigers are now relegated to small protected areas. I evaluated factors influencing occupancy of tiger at a fine spatial-scale, developed a novel model to estimate prey abundance, assessed intraguild interaction between tigers and leopards in response to prey and disturbance factors, and evaluated sustainable financing mechanisms for tiger conservation programs. The success of carnivore conservation relies on better understanding their habitat use and prey availability, the community structure of competing species, and the financial ability to sustain monitoring and conservation programs. I collected field data through camera trap survey in Chitwan National Park and found that tiger occurrence was influenced by fine-scale habitat factors including prey availability. I concluded that in small protected areas wide-ranging carnivores may persist at high population densities by intensively focusing their activity on small portions of their home ranges. Furthermore, prey abundance, key to carnivore persistence, can be reliably estimated from camera trapping data using binomial mixture models. Further, prey abundances in conjunction with human and livestock presence in the park modulate intraguild interactions between tigers and leopards. Collectively, these findings should provide useful information for biologists, conservationists, and managers on how to successfully conserve and manage large carnivores.

scholarly journals Tooth fracture frequency in gray wolves reflects prey availability

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaire Van Valkenburgh ◽  
Rolf O Peterson ◽  
Douglas W Smith ◽  
Daniel R Stahler ◽  
John A Vucetich
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Large Carnivore ◽  
Fracture Frequency ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Dental Attrition ◽  
Energetic Stress ◽  
Tooth Fracture ◽  
Dental Injuries

Exceptionally high rates of tooth fracture in large Pleistocene carnivorans imply intensified interspecific competition, given that tooth fracture rises with increased bone consumption, a behavior that likely occurs when prey are difficult to acquire. To assess the link between prey availability and dental attrition, we documented dental fracture rates over decades among three well-studied populations of extant gray wolves that differed in prey:predator ratio and levels of carcass utilization. When prey:predator ratios declined, kills were more fully consumed, and rates of tooth fracture more than doubled. This supports tooth fracture frequency as a relative measure of the difficulty of acquiring prey, and reveals a rapid response to diminished food levels in large carnivores despite risks of infection and reduced fitness due to dental injuries. More broadly, large carnivore tooth fracture frequency likely reflects energetic stress, an aspect of predator success that is challenging to quantify in wild populations.

Human–carnivore competition for antlered ungulates: do pumas select for bulls and bucks?

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 523 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Mark Elbroch ◽  
Jennifer Feltner ◽  
Howard Quigley
Keyword(s):  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Puma Concolor ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Prey Selection ◽  
Mule Deer ◽  
Odocoileus Hemionus ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Study Sites

Context Many institutions of wildlife management and their hunting constituents tend to value ungulates over large carnivores, in part due to financial incentives associated with ungulate hunting over carnivore hunting. This system benefits from mythology that presents large carnivores as competitors for antlered male ungulates most prized by the hunting community. Aims We explored puma (Puma concolor) foraging and prey selection in two study areas in the Rocky Mountains, USA, to test whether pumas were competing with human hunters for antlered elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Methods We employed GPS technology to track pumas and document their prey. We measured population- and individual-level selection by comparing prey killed by pumas to two estimates of prey availability: (1) landscape-level as determined by annual agency game counts; and (2) total prey killed by marked pumas. Key results Pumas in both study systems killed small numbers of antlered elk and mule deer. Pumas exhibited avoidance of mature elk, instead strongly selecting for elk calves over any other age or sex class. Pumas in both systems also selected for mule deer fawns; however, they also exhibited small positive selection (Jacob’s index of 0.08 in CO and 0.11 in WY on a scale of 0.0–1.0) for antlered mule deer. Conclusions In terms of numbers killed, pumas were not a competitor with human hunters for either antlered species. In terms of prey selection, pumas showed that they may be greater competition for rare antlered mule deer but not for antlered elk. In both study sites, antlered elk and deer remained at levels at which they could perform their ecological functions. Implications Our results highlight the fact that the overhunting of large carnivores over competition for antlered ungulates is mostly unfounded; we should instead focus management, media attention and conservation science on disentangling the complex ecology driving localised declines of mule deer, elk and other important ungulate resources, many of which are anthropogenic in nature and can be addressed.

scholarly journals Tooth Fracture Frequency in Gray Wolves Reflects Prey Availability

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaire Van Valkenburgh ◽  
Rolf O. Peterson ◽  
Douglas W. Smith ◽  
Daniel R. Stahler ◽  
John A. Vucetich
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Large Carnivore ◽  
Fracture Frequency ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Dental Attrition ◽  
Energetic Stress ◽  
Tooth Fracture ◽  
Dental Injuries

AbstractExceptionally high rates of tooth fracture in large Pleistocene carnivorans imply intensified interspecific competition, given that tooth fracture rises with increased bone consumption, a behavior that likely occurs when prey are difficult to acquire. To assess the link between prey availability and dental attrition, we documented dental fracture rates over decades among three well-studied populations of extant gray wolves that differed in prey:predator ratio and levels of carcass utilization. When prey:predator ratios declined, kills were more fully consumed, and rates of tooth fracture more than doubled. This supports tooth fracture frequency as a relative measure of the difficulty of acquiring prey, and reveals a rapid response to diminished food levels in large carnivores despite risks of infection and reduced fitness due to dental injuries. More broadly, large carnivore tooth fracture frequency likely reflects energetic stress, an aspect of predator success that is challenging to quantify in wild populations.

Waldpolitischer Jahresrückblick 2011

2012 ◽  
Vol 163 (5) ◽  
pp. 145-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willi Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Forest Policy ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Government ◽  
European Forest ◽  
Forest Legislation ◽  
Forest Act

Annual review of Swiss forest policy 2011 The revision of the Forest Act, the adoption of the Forest Programme 2020 by the Federal Council as well as the preparation of the second contribution period of the New System of Financial Equalisation and Division of Tasks between the Confederation and the Cantons (NFE) shaped, in addition to the routine business, the forest policy of 2011. The parliamentary initiatives on forest and forest policy issues remained of about the same amount as in previous years, while the Federal Court decisions on forest legislation have declined significantly. In various forest-related sectoral policies, the government and parliament made important decisions. In climate policy, the Parliament adopted the CO2 Law. However, this has not yet happened to the revision of the Spatial Planning Act. In nature and landscape policy, the administration has prepared the Swiss biodiversity strategy so far that the Federal Council could send it out for consultation. The revision of the Hunting Regulation, with changes in the management of large carnivores, is nearing adoption. At the international level, the Federal Council has submitted the European Landscape Convention to the Parliament for ratification, and the European forestry ministers have agreed to the preparation of a European Forest Convention.

Pregnancy Cravings: Visitation at a Food-Provisioning Site is Driven by the Reproductive Status of Bottlenose Dolphins

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248
Author(s):  
Valeria Senigaglia ◽  
Lars Bejder
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Reproductive Status ◽  
Food Provisioning ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Increase Risk ◽  
Lactating Females ◽  
Tourism Attractions ◽  
Marine Wildlife

Marine wildlife tourism attractions often use food rewards to ensure close-up encounters with freeranging animals. In Bunbury, Western Australia, the Dolphin Discovery Centre (DDC) conducts a foodprovision program where bottlenose dolphins (N = 22; between 2000 and 2018) are offered food rewards to encourage their visitation at a beach in front of the DDC. We used historical records on individual beach visits by adult female dolphins collected by the DDC from 2000 to 2018 to develop generalized mixed effects models (GLMM) to test whether the frequency of beach visitation was influenced by their reproductive status (pregnant, lactating, nonreproductive) or climatic events (El Niño-Southern Oscillation phases) that could affect prey availability. We also quantified the behavioral budget of dolphins during food-provisioning sessions and documented intra- and interspecific aggressive behaviors using individual focal follows collected in 2017–2018. Provisioned females spend most of the time resting within the interaction area (66.3%) and aggressive interactions arise as a consequence of dominance behavior over food access. Visitation rates were most influenced by reproductive status with pregnant and lactating females visiting the provisioning area more frequently (z = 2.085, p = 0.037 and z = 2.437, p = 0.014, respectively). Females that frequently visit the provisioning area expose their dependent calves to regular human interactions at an early age when they are more susceptible to behavioral conditioning. Such experiences could cause the loss of awareness towards humans and promote maladaptive behaviors such as begging that increase risk of entanglement in fishing gear, boat strikes, and propeller injuries.

scholarly journals Survival of the fattest: linking body condition to prey availability and survivorship of killer whales

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Stewart ◽  
John W. Durban ◽  
Holly Fearnbach ◽  
Lance G. Barrett‐Lennard ◽  
Paige K. Casler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Condition ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Killer Whales
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