Dietary Overlap Between Huemul and Livestock in Los Alerces National Park, Argentina

Abstract

We evaluated the potential for interspecific competition for forage between huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) and livestock in Los Alerces National Park, Argentina. We studied winter diets based on microhistological analysis of fecal samples. Huemul selected herbs and shrubs, sheep showed preference for herbs and grasses, and cattle selected grasses. As predicted for small‐bodied species, huemul had a narrower dietary niche than did larger bodied cattle. Competition for forage would be more likely between huemul and sheep than between huemul and cattle. Our results might be helpful to managers in areas where domestic and wild ungulates live in sympatry in order to reduce competition, especially in wintering areas where food is scarce.

Cattle in the Patagonian forests: Feeding ecology in Los Alerces National Reserve

“…We also analyzed differences in the proportion of plant categories or individual key species across seasons using a Kruskal-Wallis H-test (Zar, 1996). We defined key plant species as those representing ≥10% of the diet in ≥1 sample (Vila et al, 2009). …”

“…Species were grouped into the following life forms: forbs, shrubs, trees, graminoids (including Poaceae, Juncaceae and Cyperaceae), and other species (fungi, ferns, and mosses). Chusquea bamboo (C. coleau) was considered a graminoid because it is in the Poaceae family, following Manacorda et al (1996) and Vila et al (2009), and in order to facilitate comparison between diet studies. However, it is important to note that other studies on animal impacts in Patagonia placed woody grass bamboo in the shrub class (e.g.…”

Clarifying competition: the case of wildlife and pastoral livestock in East Africa

“…Existing research on competition between wildlife and livestock generally has treated it as interspecific sympatric competition, where individuals of different species vie for the same resource in an ecosystem (Prins 2000). Arguments for or against such competition have relied on dietary overlap (Fritz et al 1996;Mishra et al 2004;Odadi et al 2007;Vila et al 2009) as evidence for competition. This approach can be as simple as depicting grazers competing with grazers and browsers with browsers.…”

Exotic deer in southern Latin America: what do we know about impacts on native deer and on ecosystems?

“…Similarly, Martínez (2008) described the other Critical Area for huemul in another national park, where five settlers with old grazing rights occupy practically the whole unfenced area with their livestock. The estimated 14 huemul (Vila et al 2009) share the space with 377 large herbivores (mainly cattle) and 360 sheep and goats. The livestock estimates were provided by the settlers Exotic deer in southern Latin America 1913 and likely are underestimates (Serret et al 1994).…”