Functional responses to changes in rabbit abundance: is the eagle owl a generalist or a specialist predator?

Tobajas, Jorge; Fernandez-de-Simon, Javier; Díaz‐Ruiz, Francisco; Villafuerte, Rafael; Ferreras, Pablo

doi:10.1007/s10344-015-0976-7

Cited by 10 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The stone martens avoided areas of higher abundance of eagle owls and also rabbits. Since the rabbit is a main food item of the eagle owl in Mediterranean Spain [22,36], its abundance affects the density and reproductive success of this raptor [23,65]. A high density of eagle owls in the area would be associated with a higher average abundance of rabbits (6 rabbit/ha on average) than the mean density of rabbits density in typical Mediterranean habitats [66].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intraguild Predation by the Eagle Owl Determines the Space Use of a Mesopredator Carnivore

et al. 2020

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Top predators shape the communities of sympatric predators by killing and displacing smaller predators. Predation risk pushes smaller predators to select enemy-free spaces irrespective of food availability, which results in changes in their behaviour, space use, distribution, and abundance. Although the landscape of fear dynamics are known for top predators such as the eagle owl and its impact on smaller raptors, the effect of the presence and abundance of the eagle owl on the space use of mesopredator carnivores remains poorly understood. Here, we studied this effect on the space use of the stone marten in a Mediterranean ecosystem where it shares rabbits as main prey with the eagle owl. We also accounted for the presence of another sympatric carnivore, the red fox. Using a multi-model inference, we found stone martens avoided areas with a higher abundance of eagle owls and rabbits, which suggested a hyperpredation process and a cognitive association by stone martens between rabbit hotspots and owl presence. We found a positive relationship between the space use of the red fox and the stone marten, which suggested foxes behaved as competitors and not predators of martens. Understanding intraguild predation can assist the conservation and management of predators and their prey.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The eagle owl is a generalist predator, although the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is its staple prey in Mediterranean environments [21,[34][35][36]. In this region, eagle owl abundance is low in areas where rabbits are scarce or absent [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraguild Predation by the Eagle Owl Determines the Space Use of a Mesopredator Carnivore

et al. 2020

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“…Bottomland hardwoods also provide antipredatory cover and seasonal fluxes of high quality forage (e.g., hard and soft mast), which should also affect the functional response in risky locations [ 53 ]. As such, at least seasonally, crop consumption by pigs may be viewed as a form of facultative foraging [ 54 ] occurring in response to preferential selection for thermoregulatory and seasonal foraging habitat, reinforced by antipredatory benefits of natural cover.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal variation in preference dictates space use in an invasive generalist

et al. 2018

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BackgroundThe spatiotemporal distribution of resources is a critical component of realized animal distributions. In agricultural landscapes, space use by generalist consumers is influenced by ephemeral resource availability that may produce behavioral differences across agricultural seasons, resulting in economic and production consequences and increased human-wildlife conflict. Our objective was to assess changes in habitat selection across seasons in an invasive generalist omnivore (feral pigs, Sus scrofa). Hypothesizing that pig space use is primarily driven by forage availability, we predicted strong selection for the most nutritionally beneficial crops and resource types as agricultural seasons progressed. We deployed GPS collars on 13 adult feral pigs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley to study resource selection in a fragmented agricultural landscape. We estimated resource selection using mixed-effect logistic regression to assess variation in selection across planting, growing, harvest, and fallow seasons.ResultsWe found that feral pigs varied resource selection across seasons, particularly for corn (Zea mais). We also detected seasonal dependencies in proportional coverage on the net probability of selection of a land unit (e.g., selection was generally strongest for locations composed of both agricultural and natural habitat), resulting in marked variation in predicted space use among agricultural seasons.ConclusionsThese findings indicate behavioral changes in selection across agricultural seasons are driven by complex interactions between the availabilities of temporally dynamic resources and temporally static natural cover. Temporal variations in resource selection trends indicate seasonal responses to crop phenology which suggests a season-specific habitat functional response.

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“…Out of the potential candidates among vertebrate top predators in which to study the determinants of superpredation, the eagle owl is an ideal species for the following reasons: 1) it regularly engages in lethal interactions with other predators (Lourenço et al 2011a); 2) its diet is easy to study (using pellets and prey remains), providing large sample sizes per breeding site and accurate identification of prey species (Lourenço et al 2015a); 3) it has a generalist diet, taking advantage of the most profitable prey and responding to changes in its main prey abundance (Korpimäki et al 1990, Lourenço et al 2011a, Tobajas et al 2016); 4) it has a relatively small home range enabling a reliable estimate of prey and mesopredator abundance within its potential hunting area (Campioni et al 2013, Lourenço et al 2015a; 5) it occupies many ecosystems across its geographically widespread distribution (the whole Palearctic region); and 6) it plays a similar ecological role to its con-generic species of similar size occurring in almost all parts of the world (e. Lourenço 2006, Campioni et al 2012. Eagle owls occur in similar landscape typologies and habitats in the four regions: mostly agro-pastoral woodlands of varying density, and Mediterranean scrublands mainly managed for small-game hunting (Lourenço 2006, Campioni et al 2012.…”

Section: Eagle Owl Investigation and Diet Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why do top predators engage in superpredation? From an empirical scenario to a theoretical framework

Lourenço

Delgado

Campioni

et al. 2018

Oikos

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Lethal interactions can shape ecosystem structure, and consequently understanding their causes is ecologically relevant. To improve both empirical and theoretical knowledge on superpredation (i.e. predation on high‐order predators), we studied an eagle owl population, including its main prey and mesopredators, and then we crossed these results with existing theories to provide a reasoning framework. We fitted our field data into four main causes explaining lethal interactions: food stress, opportunistic superpredation, removal of a competitor, and removal of a potential threat. Empirically, superpredation seemed to be mostly determined by the combination of the food‐stress and opportunistic‐superpredation hypotheses, which highlights the complexity of the factors triggering superpredation. Therefore, besides being a response to lower food availability, superpredation may also represent an effective mechanism to remove potential predators and/or competitors, either intentionally or not. Our theoretical framework focused on the decision‐making process in superpredation, considering four inter‐related stages: encountering; attacking; and capturing a mesopredator; as well as consuming a mesopredator once killed. Superpredation almost certainly results from a complex process of decision‐making, accounting for costs and benefits assessed moment‐to‐moment and for each mesopredator individual. It is time to build bridges between theoretical and empirical studies to further understand the mechanisms driving complex interactions among top predators and mesopredators.

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Functional responses to changes in rabbit abundance: is the eagle owl a generalist or a specialist predator?

Cited by 10 publications

References 36 publications

Intraguild Predation by the Eagle Owl Determines the Space Use of a Mesopredator Carnivore

Intraguild Predation by the Eagle Owl Determines the Space Use of a Mesopredator Carnivore

Seasonal variation in preference dictates space use in an invasive generalist

Why do top predators engage in superpredation? From an empirical scenario to a theoretical framework

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