Beavers, &lt;em&gt;Castor canadensis&lt;/em&gt;, Feeding on Salmon Carcasses: Opportunistic Use of a Seasonally Superabundant Food Source

Gleason, Jeffrey S.; Hoffman, Ryan; Wendland, James M.

doi:10.22621/cfn.v119i4.215

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Predator-prey dynamics are often drivers of carrion availability in ecosystems, which could influence scavenger behaviour (Perrig, Donadio, Middleton, & Pauli, 2017;Wilmers et al, 2003). Species commonly alter foraging strategies when food availability shifts, and vertebrates switch to consuming carrion to take advantage of an abundant food source (Gleason, Hoffman, & Wendland, 2005). Therefore, changes in carrion biomass associated with predator-prey dynamics may have an important influence on carrion recycling rates, or the number of scavengers in the community (Allen, Elbroch, Wilmers, & Wittmer, 2015;Wilmers et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prey availability and ambient temperature influence carrion persistence in the boreal forest

Peers

Konkolics

Lamb

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Scavenging by vertebrates can have important impacts on food web stability and persistence, and can alter the distribution of nutrients throughout the landscape. However, scavenging communities have been understudied in most regions around the globe, and we lack understanding of the biotic drivers of vertebrate scavenging dynamics. In this paper, we examined how changes in prey density and carrion biomass caused by population cycles of a primary prey species, the snowshoe hare Lepus americanus, influence scavenging communities in the northern boreal forest. We further examined the impact of habitat and temperature on scavenging dynamics. We monitored the persistence time, time until first scavenger, and number of species scavenging experimentally‐placed hare carcasses over four consecutive years in the southwestern Yukon. We simultaneously monitored hare density and carrion biomass to examine their influence relative to temperature, habitat, and seasonal effects. For the primary scavengers, we developed species‐specific scavenging models to determine variation on the effects of these factors across species, and determine which species may be driving temporal patterns in the entire community. We found that the efficiency of the scavenging community was affected by hare density, with carcass persistence decreasing when snowshoe hare densities declined, mainly due to increased scavenging rates by Canada lynx Lynx canadensis. However, prey density did not influence the number of species scavenging a given carcass, suggesting prey abundance affects carrion recycling but not necessarily the number of connections in the food web. In addition, scavenging rates increased in warmer temperatures, and there were strong seasonal effects on the richness of the vertebrate scavenging community. Our results demonstrate that vertebrate scavenging communities are sensitive to changes in species’ demography and environmental change, and that future assessments of food web dynamics should consider links established through scavenging.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prey availability and ambient temperature influence carrion persistence in the boreal forest

Peers

Konkolics

Lamb

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Undoubtedly, such "procedure" is usual in biology of this rodent. Direct observations of Alaskan beavers (Castor canadensis) foraging and feeding on discarded Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) carcasses were reported (Gleason et al, 2005). High rate of opisthorchosis in beavers in the Voronezh region (Romashov, 1958) is also (butindirect) proof of "piscivory" of beavers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-eating in beavers — trophic opportunism or reaction on stress? Extreme case from Mongolia

Saveljev¹,

Niamosor²,

Shaariybuu³

et al. 2016

Rus.J.Theriol.

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“…Functional groups may also blur during periods of resource hyperabundance. On land, Alaskan beaver ( Castor canadensis ) feed on chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) carcasses during spawning aggregations [13]. In reef systems, numerous invertebrates (scleractinian corals, echinoderms and bivalves) coordinate mass spawning in both predictable and unpredictable events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shark-based tourism presents opportunities for facultative dietary shift in coral reef fish

Drew

McKeon

2019

PLoS ONE

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Tourism represents an important opportunity to provide sustainable funding for many ecosystems, including marine systems. Tourism that is reliant on aggregating predator species in a specific area using food provisioning raises questions about the long-term ecological impacts to the ecosystem at large? Here, using opportunistically collected video footage, we document that 61 different species of fish across 16 families are consuming tuna flesh at two separate shark dive tourism operations in the Republic of Fiji. Of these fish, we have resolved 55 to species level. Notably, 35 (63%) of the identified species we observed consuming tuna flesh were from ostensibly non-piscivorous fishes, including four Acanthuridae species, a group primarily recognized as browsers or grazers of algae and epibenthic detritus. Our results indicate that shark diving is having a direct impact on species other than sharks and that many species are facultatively expanding their trophic niches to accommodate the hyperabundance of resources provided by ecotourism.

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Beavers, <em>Castor canadensis</em>, Feeding on Salmon Carcasses: Opportunistic Use of a Seasonally Superabundant Food Source

Cited by 8 publications

References 19 publications

Prey availability and ambient temperature influence carrion persistence in the boreal forest

Prey availability and ambient temperature influence carrion persistence in the boreal forest

Self-eating in beavers — trophic opportunism or reaction on stress? Extreme case from Mongolia

Shark-based tourism presents opportunities for facultative dietary shift in coral reef fish

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