Linking habitat use to mortality and population viability to disarm an ecological trap

Simon, Ricardo Nouailhetas; Fortin, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.05.001

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…In conclusion, bison constitute a smaller proportion of wolf diet when compared to other ungulates, which is consistent with results from other wolf-bison predator-prey systems (Smith et al 2000, Jędrzejewski et al 2002. However, predation in combination with other mortality factors, such as disease and harvest, may lead to population decline and increase extinction risk of the SRPB population (Joly and Messier 2004, Sigaud et al 2017, Simon and Fortin 2019. Extinction risk for the SRPB was highest in population simulations when the effects of harvest and disease were combined (Cherry et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Disease and annual harvests have contributed to past bison mortality (Shury et al 2009, Merkle et al 2015, but the role of wolf predation in the SRPB decline is unclear. Population simulations for the SRPB indicate unsustainable harvest is likely the main factor limiting population recovery; however, these models assume predation rates similar to other bison populations (Cherry et al 2019, Simon andFortin 2019). No studies have directly investigated the role of predation by gray wolves on the SRPB population.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Seasonal and inter‐annual variation in diet for gray wolves Canis lupus in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan

et al. 2020

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

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confidence: 99%

Seasonal and inter‐annual variation in diet for gray wolves Canis lupus in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan

et al. 2020

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“…Bison reintroductions can be challenging due to the animals' propensity for long-range dispersal after release (Simon and Fortin 2019). For example, in 1978 a herd of 28 wood bison Bison bison athabascae were reintroduced to Jasper National Park, Canada, but after only two weeks all but one of the animals travelled 300 km beyond the park and had to be recaptured, bringing the project to an end (Davidson and Norcross 1978).…”

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confidence: 99%

Designing a fence that enables free passage of wildlife while containing reintroduced bison: a multispecies evaluation

Laskin¹,

Watt²,

Whittington³

et al. 2020

Wildlife Biology

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“…With asymmetrical competition, a socially dominant competitor could displace a subordinate species from its preferred habitat (Sherry and Holmes 1988). In their recent study on the plains bison Bison bison bison in Canada, Simon and Fortin (2019) showed that individuals were trapped in a spatially limited portion of the landscape, but with negative demographic consequences for the population over a much larger area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, this link is seldom tested in studies on ecological traps because those that meet the criteria to demonstrate the existence of a trap often measure habitat preference and quality in a small number of geographically close habitat patches (Hale and Swearer 2016). A spatially explicit understanding of the link between habitat preference, habitat use and habitat quality is, therefore, needed to increase our ability to evaluate the consequences of ecological traps for the populations at the landscape level (Simon and Fortin 2019). This is the most relevant scale for the management of ecological traps (Hale and Swearer 2016) and also the scale at which SDMs approaches are typically applied to guide conservation actions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological traps and species distribution models: a challenge for prioritizing areas of conservation importance

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Species distribution models analyse how species use different types of habitats. Their spatial predictions are often used to prioritize areas for conservation. Individuals may, however, prefer settling in habitat types of low quality compared to other available habitats. This ecological trap phenomenon is usually studied in a small number of habitat patches and consequences at the landscape level are largely unknown. It is therefore often unclear whether the spatial pattern of habitat use is aligned with the behavioural decisions made by the individuals during habitat selection or reflects actual variation in the quality of different habitat types. As species distribution models analyse the pattern of occurrence in different habitats, there is a conservation interest in examining what their predictions mean in terms of habitat quality when ecological traps are operating. Previous work in Belgium showed that red‐backed shrikes Lanius collurio are more attracted to newly available clear‐cut habitat in plantation forests than to the traditionally used farmland habitat. We developed models with shrike distribution data and compared their predictions with spatial variation in shrike reproductive performance used as a proxy for habitat quality. Models accurately predicted shrike distribution and identified the preferred clear‐cut patches as the most frequently used habitat, but reproductive performance was lower in clear‐cut areas than in farmland. With human‐induced rapid environmental changes, organisms may indeed be attracted to low‐quality habitats and occupy them at high densities. Consequently, the predictions of statistical models based on occurrence records may not align with variation in significant population parameters for the maintenance of the species. When species expand their range to novel habitats, such models are useful to document the spatial distribution of the organisms, but data on population growth rates are worth collecting before using model predictions to guide the spatial prioritization of conservation actions.

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Linking habitat use to mortality and population viability to disarm an ecological trap

Cited by 13 publications

References 56 publications

Seasonal and inter‐annual variation in diet for gray wolves Canis lupus in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan

Seasonal and inter‐annual variation in diet for gray wolves Canis lupus in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan

Designing a fence that enables free passage of wildlife while containing reintroduced bison: a multispecies evaluation

Ecological traps and species distribution models: a challenge for prioritizing areas of conservation importance

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