Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents
Trophic interactions are a fundamental topic in ecology, but we know little about how competition between apex predators affects predation, the mechanism driving top-down forcing in ecosystems. We used long-term datasets from Scandinavia (Europe) and Yellowstone National Park (North America) to eval...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 2024-06-23T07:51:59+00:00 Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andrés Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon E. Sand, Håkan National Science Foundation 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1848, page 20162368 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2017 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 2024-06-10T04:15:15Z Trophic interactions are a fundamental topic in ecology, but we know little about how competition between apex predators affects predation, the mechanism driving top-down forcing in ecosystems. We used long-term datasets from Scandinavia (Europe) and Yellowstone National Park (North America) to evaluate how grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) kill rate was affected by a sympatric apex predator, the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ). We used kill interval (i.e. the number of days between consecutive ungulate kills) as a proxy of kill rate. Although brown bears can monopolize wolf kills, we found no support in either study system for the common assumption that they cause wolves to kill more often. On the contrary, our results showed the opposite effect. In Scandinavia, wolf packs sympatric with brown bears killed less often than allopatric packs during both spring (after bear den emergence) and summer. Similarly, the presence of bears at wolf-killed ungulates was associated with wolves killing less often during summer in Yellowstone. The consistency in results between the two systems suggests that brown bear presence actually reduces wolf kill rate. Our results suggest that the influence of predation on lower trophic levels may depend on the composition of predator communities. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Ursus arctos The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 1848 20162368 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Trophic interactions are a fundamental topic in ecology, but we know little about how competition between apex predators affects predation, the mechanism driving top-down forcing in ecosystems. We used long-term datasets from Scandinavia (Europe) and Yellowstone National Park (North America) to evaluate how grey wolf ( Canis lupus ) kill rate was affected by a sympatric apex predator, the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ). We used kill interval (i.e. the number of days between consecutive ungulate kills) as a proxy of kill rate. Although brown bears can monopolize wolf kills, we found no support in either study system for the common assumption that they cause wolves to kill more often. On the contrary, our results showed the opposite effect. In Scandinavia, wolf packs sympatric with brown bears killed less often than allopatric packs during both spring (after bear den emergence) and summer. Similarly, the presence of bears at wolf-killed ungulates was associated with wolves killing less often during summer in Yellowstone. The consistency in results between the two systems suggests that brown bear presence actually reduces wolf kill rate. Our results suggest that the influence of predation on lower trophic levels may depend on the composition of predator communities. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andrés Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon E. Sand, Håkan |
spellingShingle |
Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andrés Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon E. Sand, Håkan Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
author_facet |
Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andrés Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon E. Sand, Håkan |
author_sort |
Tallian, Aimee |
title |
Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
title_short |
Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
title_full |
Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
title_fullStr |
Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
title_full_unstemmed |
Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
title_sort |
competition between apex predators? brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 |
genre |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 284, issue 1848, page 20162368 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
284 |
container_issue |
1848 |
container_start_page |
20162368 |
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1802643145519792128 |