The bioclimatic envelope of the wolverine (<i>Gulo gulo</i>): do climatic constraints limit its geographic distribution?

Copeland, Jeffrey P.; McKelvey, Kevin S.; Aubry, Keith B.; Landa, Arild; Persson, Jens; Inman, Robert M.; Krebs, John; Lofroth, Eric C.; Golden, Howard; Squires, John R.; Magoun, Audrey J.; Schwartz, Michael K.; Wilmot, Jason; Copeland, C.L.; Yates, Rick; Kojola, Ilpo; May, Roelof Frans

doi:10.1139/z09-136

Cited by 117 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…It will also be important to consider what cached food is being used for during periods of low resource availability. For example, both Gray Jays and Wolverines use cached food not just for survival but also for reproduction [28,154], meaning that multiple demographic vital rates may be linked to changes in cached food quality over time. Identifying the vital rates driving population dynamics will help to identify how the downstream effects of climate change on cached food quality may influence population growth rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Sutton

Strickland²,

Norris

2016

Clim Chang Responses

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Food caching is a behavioural strategy used by a wide range of animals to store food for future use. When food is stored, it is susceptible to environmental conditions that can lead to spoilage via microbial proliferation or physical and chemical processes. Given that the nutrition gained from consuming cached food will almost always be less than consuming it immediately upon capture, the degree of degradation will play a central role in determining the ecological threshold at which caching is no longer profitable. Our framework proposes that the degree of susceptibility among caching species is based primarily on the duration of storage, and the perishability of stored food. We first summarize the degree of susceptibility of 203 vertebrate caching species. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of these species are long-term cachers (>10 days) but only 2% are both long-term cachers and store highly perishable food. We then integrate insights from the fields of applied food science and plant biology to outline potential mechanisms by which climate change may influence food-caching species. Four climatic factors (temperature, number of freeze-thaw events, deep-freeze events and humidity) have been shown to affect the degradation of food consumed by humans and are also expected to influence the quality of perishable food cached in the wild. Temperature and moisture are likely important factors influencing seemingly nonperishable seeds. Although we are able to provide broad classifications for caching species at risk of climate change, an improved understanding of how environmental conditions affect the quality and persistence of cached food may allow us to better predict the impact of changing climatic conditions on the fitness of food-caching animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Sutton

Strickland²,

Norris

2016

Clim Chang Responses

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“…The wolverine is a solitary carnivore with a polygamous mating system (Hedmark et al 2007), intrasexual territoriality Inman et al 2012a) and male-biased natal dispersal (Vangen et al 2001;Flagstad et al 2004). Wolverines occupy arctic tundra and boreal forest zones of Eurasia and North America (Copeland et al 2010) and are adapted to harsh environmental conditions with low productivity by being an opportunistic generalist predator and scavenger that caches food for later use (Inman et al 2012b;Mattisson et al 2016). Wolverine female reproductive success is influenced by winter food availability as well as age-related reproductive costs, where the probability to successfully reproduce 2 years in a row declines with age (Persson 2005;Rauset et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female breeding dispersal in wolverines, a solitary carnivore with high territorial fidelity

Aronsson

Persson

2018

Eur J Wildl Res

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Individuals' fidelity to an area provides insight into the stability of the spatial and temporal organisation of animals. Territorial fidelity is often influenced by reproductive success, age, the dispersion and predictability of resources, and intraspecific competition. We examined between-year territorial fidelity in wolverines (Gulo gulo), using location data from 47 individuals collected during 1993-2013 in northern Sweden, to assess the stability of the spatial organisation of this solitary carnivore. For females, we also determined residency status from 1 year to the next. The study population is characterized by a stable distribution of resident individuals, with both males and females showing higher fidelity at the total territory level compared to more intensively used core areas. In 86% of the yearly residency status estimates (n = 122), the female remained stationary. In the remaining 14% of the cases, females either vacated their territory (8% of residency statuses), or expanded into a neighbouring territory (6% of residency statuses). We documented six cases of breeding dispersal, representing one of the few known cases of breeding dispersal in longlived large mammals. We suggest that this high territorial fidelity is enabled by wolverines' caching and scavenging behaviours, which buffer the unpredictable and large spatiotemporal variation in resource abundance in this low-productivity area. Breeding dispersal may occur due to competition for high-quality territories in this saturated population, where females are forced to abandon their territory by competitors or bequeath territories to offspring. This study further highlights the complexity of the social and spatial dynamics for solitary carnivores.

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“…This facultative scavenger occupies a cold, low-productivity niche (Copeland et al, 2010;Inman et al, 2012a,b) that results in sparse population densities ($5/1000 km 2 ) and low reproductive rates (0.7 young/female > 3 yrs/yr) across its range (Golden et al, 2007;Inman et al, 2012a;Persson et al, 2006). As a result, wolverine populations are relatively vulnerable due to their small size and limited capacity for growth (Brøseth et al, 2010;Persson et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing priorities for metapopulation conservation at the landscape scale: Wolverines in the Western United States

Inman

Brock²,

Inman

et al. 2013

Biological Conservation

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a b s t r a c tWildlife populations are often influenced by multiple political jurisdictions. This is particularly true for wide-ranging, low-density carnivores whose populations have often contracted and remain threatened, heightening the need for geographically coordinated priorities at the landscape scale. Yet even as modern policies facilitate species recoveries, gaps in knowledge of historical distributions, population capacities, and potential for genetic exchange inhibit development of population-level conservation priorities. Wolverines are an 8-18 kg terrestrial weasel (Mustelidae) that naturally exist at low densities ($5/1000 km 2 )in cold, often snow-covered areas. Wolverines were extirpated, or nearly so, from the contiguous United States by 1930. We used a resource selection function to (1) predict habitat suitable for survival, reproduction and dispersal of wolverines across the western US, (2) make a rough estimate of population capacity, and (3) develop conservation priorities at the metapopulation scale. Primary wolverine habitat (survival) existed in island-like fashion across the western US, and we estimated capacity to be 644 wolverines (95% CI = 506-1881). We estimated current population size to be approximately half of capacity. Areas we predicted suitable for male dispersal linked all patches, but some potential core areas appear to be relatively isolated for females. Reintroduction of wolverines to the Southern Rockies and SierraNevadas has the potential to increase population size by >50% and these regions may be robust to climate change. The Central Linkage Region is an area of great importance for metapopulation function, thus warranting collaborative strategies for maintaining high survival rates, high reproductive rates, and dispersal capabilities. Our analysis can help identify dispersal corridors, release locations for reintroductions, and monitoring targets. The process we used can serve as an example for developing collaborative, landscapescale, conservation priorities for data-sparse metapopulations. Ó

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The bioclimatic envelope of the wolverine (Gulo gulo): do climatic constraints limit its geographic distribution?

Cited by 117 publications

References 49 publications

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Food storage in a changing world: implications of climate change for food-caching species

Female breeding dispersal in wolverines, a solitary carnivore with high territorial fidelity

Developing priorities for metapopulation conservation at the landscape scale: Wolverines in the Western United States

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