When death comes: linking predator–prey activity patterns to timing of mortality to understand predation risk

Shiratsuru, Shotaro; Studd, Emily K.; Boutin, Stan; Peers, Michael J. L.; Majchrzak, Yasmine N.; Menzies, Allyson K.; Derbyshire, Rachael; Jung, Thomas S.; Boonstra, Rudy; Murray, Dennis L.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0661

Cited by 5 publications

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

Foraging decisions of snowshoe hares in response to experimentally induced coat-colour mismatch

Kennah

Peers

Balluffi‐Fry

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals may exhibit various strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of phenological mismatch. In species experiencing coat colour mismatch, the effects of lost camouflage on the susceptibility to predation may be compensated for with other antipredator traits, such as altered foraging decisions, and may further depend on the intensity of risk. We artificially simulated coat colour mismatch and predation risk in wild-caught snowshoe hares and measured their forage intake rate of black spruce browse, intraspecific selection for forage quality, i.e., % nitrogen of browse, and resulting body mass loss across different risk levels, simulated by cover or lack thereof. We found that hares did not adjust their intake rate in response to mismatch, but hares in our high-risk treatment ate significantly more than hares in our low-risk treatment. Mismatched brown hares, however, selected for more nitrogen-rich forage than their matched brown counterparts. Mismatched white hares lost 4.55% more body mass than their matched white counterparts, despite not reducing their intake rate. Hares in our high-risk treatment lost 1.29% more body mass than those in covered enclosures. We suggest that the increased selection for nitrogen-rich forage observed in brown mismatched hares may occur to mitigate the body mass loss consequences of mismatch. Similarly, the increased intake rate of hares in clear roof enclosures relative to those in opaque roof enclosures may be a compensatory behavioural response to increased body mass loss. Our results highlight the potential indirect effects of coat colour mismatch on snowshoe hares, but also the corresponding behavioural mechanisms that may partially mitigate these effects.

show abstract

Foraging decisions of snowshoe hares in response to experimentally induced coat-colour mismatch

Kennah

Peers

Balluffi‐Fry

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The socio-spatial ecology of giant anteaters in the Brazilian Cerrado

Chhen,

Bertassoni,

Desbiez

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Movement is a key component of an animal’s life history. While there are numerous factors that influence movement, there is an inherent link between a species’ social ecology and its movement ecology. Despite this inherent relationship, the socio-spatial ecology of many species remains unknown, hampering ecological theory and conservation alike. Here, we use fine-scale GPS location data and continuous-time stochastic processes to study the socio-spatial ecology of 23 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) in the Brazilian Cerrado. We found that individuals occupied stable home ranges with a mean area of 5.45 km2with males having significantly larger home ranges than females. The average amount of home-range overlap was low (0.20, n = 121 dyads), with no evidence that giant anteater home ranges were structured based on territorial, mate guarding, nor other social behaviour. We also identified a total of 2774 encounter events. Interestingly, both female-male and male-male dyads had significantly more encounters than female-female dyads, with two pronounced seasonal peaks in female-male encounters. Though encounters occurred frequently, associations between dyads were generally weak and there was little evidence of any correlated movement (mean amount of total correlation = 0.01). Collectively, these findings suggest giant anteaters are a solitary and largely asocial species that readily share space with conspecifics. Despite their present capacity to share space, the combined pressures of being condensed into smaller areas and decreased food availability due to increased pesticide use may see behavioural changes radiating throughout the population. Our study provides insight into heretofore unknown aspects of the socio-spatial ecology of this iconic, but understudied species, as well as crucial information for proactive area-based management. Ultimately, these findings contribute towards sustainable development while potentially maintaining the ecological integrity of giant anteaters and their habitats.

show abstract

Estimating encounter‐habitat relationships with scale‐integrated resource selection functions

Egan,

Gorman,

Crews

et al. 2024

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Encounters between animals occur when animals are close in space and time. Encounters are important in many ecological processes including sociality, predation and disease transmission. Despite this, there is little theory regarding the spatial distribution of encounters and no formal framework to relate environmental characteristics to encounters. The probability of encounter could be estimated with resource selection functions (RSFs) by comparing locations where encounters occurred to available locations where they may have occurred, but this estimate is complicated by the hierarchical nature of habitat selection. We developed a method to relate resources to the relative probability of encounter based on a scale‐integrated habitat selection framework. This framework integrates habitat selection at multiple scales to obtain an appropriate estimate of availability for encounters. Using this approach, we related encounter probabilities to landscape resources. The RSFs describe habitat associations at four scales, home ranges within the study area, areas of overlap within home ranges, locations within areas of overlap, and encounters compared to other locations, which can be combined into a single scale‐integrated RSF. We apply this method to intraspecific encounter data from two species: white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and elk (Cervus elaphus) and interspecific encounter data from a two‐species system of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and coyote (Canis latrans). Our method produced scale‐integrated RSFs that represented the relative probability of encounter. The predicted spatial distribution of encounters obtained based on this scale‐integrated approach produced distributions that more accurately predicted novel encounters than a naïve approach or any individual scale alone. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the conditional nature of habitat selection in estimating the habitat associations of animal encounters as opposed to ‘naïve’ comparisons of encounter locations with general availability. This method has direct relevance for testing hypotheses about the relationship between habitat and social or predator–prey behaviour and generating spatial predictions of encounters. Such spatial predictions may be vital for understanding the distribution of encounters driving disease transmission, predation rates and other population and community‐level processes.

show abstract

When death comes: linking predator–prey activity patterns to timing of mortality to understand predation risk

Cited by 5 publications

References 78 publications

Foraging decisions of snowshoe hares in response to experimentally induced coat-colour mismatch

Foraging decisions of snowshoe hares in response to experimentally induced coat-colour mismatch

The socio-spatial ecology of giant anteaters in the Brazilian Cerrado

Estimating encounter‐habitat relationships with scale‐integrated resource selection functions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About