Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator
Abstract Variation in predator diet is a critical aspect of food web stability, health, and population dynamics of predator/ prey communities. Quantifying diet, particularly among cryptic species, is extremely challenging, however, and differentiation between demographic subsets of populations is of...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.6375 2024-09-09T19:00:44+00:00 Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator Moorhouse‐Gann, Rosemary J. Kean, Eleanor F. Parry, Gareth Valladares, Sonia Chadwick, Elizabeth A. Natural Environment Research Council European Commission Natural Resources Wales Environment Agency 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6375 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.6375 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6375 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6375 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 13, page 6395-6408 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6375 2024-08-27T04:32:42Z Abstract Variation in predator diet is a critical aspect of food web stability, health, and population dynamics of predator/ prey communities. Quantifying diet, particularly among cryptic species, is extremely challenging, however, and differentiation between demographic subsets of populations is often overlooked. We used prey remains and data taken postmortem from otter Lutra lutra to determine the extent to which dietary variation in a top predator was associated with biotic, spatial, and temporal factors. Biotic data (e.g., sex, weight, and length) and stomach contents were taken from 610 otters found dead across England and Wales between 1994 and 2010. Prey remains were identified to species where possible, using published keys and reference materials. Multi‐model inference followed by model prediction was applied to test for and visualize the nature of associations. Evidence for widespread decline in the consumption of eels ( Anguilla anguilla ) reflected known eel population declines. An association between eel consumption and otter body condition suggested negative consequences for otter nutrition. Consumption of Cottus gobio and stickleback spp. increased, but was unlikely to compensate (there was no association with body condition). More otters with empty stomachs were found over time. Otter sex, body length, and age‐class were important biotic predictors of the prey species found, and season, region, and distance from the coast were important abiotic predictors. Our study is unique in its multivariate nature, broad spatial scale, and long‐term dataset. Inclusion of biotic data allowed us to reveal important differences in costs and benefits of different prey types, and differences between demographic subsets of the population, overlaid on spatial and temporal variation. Such complexities in otter diet are likely to be paralleled in other predators, and detailed characterization of diet should not be overlooked in efforts to conserve wild populations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Anguilla anguilla Lutra lutra Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 10 13 6395 6408 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Variation in predator diet is a critical aspect of food web stability, health, and population dynamics of predator/ prey communities. Quantifying diet, particularly among cryptic species, is extremely challenging, however, and differentiation between demographic subsets of populations is often overlooked. We used prey remains and data taken postmortem from otter Lutra lutra to determine the extent to which dietary variation in a top predator was associated with biotic, spatial, and temporal factors. Biotic data (e.g., sex, weight, and length) and stomach contents were taken from 610 otters found dead across England and Wales between 1994 and 2010. Prey remains were identified to species where possible, using published keys and reference materials. Multi‐model inference followed by model prediction was applied to test for and visualize the nature of associations. Evidence for widespread decline in the consumption of eels ( Anguilla anguilla ) reflected known eel population declines. An association between eel consumption and otter body condition suggested negative consequences for otter nutrition. Consumption of Cottus gobio and stickleback spp. increased, but was unlikely to compensate (there was no association with body condition). More otters with empty stomachs were found over time. Otter sex, body length, and age‐class were important biotic predictors of the prey species found, and season, region, and distance from the coast were important abiotic predictors. Our study is unique in its multivariate nature, broad spatial scale, and long‐term dataset. Inclusion of biotic data allowed us to reveal important differences in costs and benefits of different prey types, and differences between demographic subsets of the population, overlaid on spatial and temporal variation. Such complexities in otter diet are likely to be paralleled in other predators, and detailed characterization of diet should not be overlooked in efforts to conserve wild populations. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council European Commission Natural Resources Wales Environment Agency |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Moorhouse‐Gann, Rosemary J. Kean, Eleanor F. Parry, Gareth Valladares, Sonia Chadwick, Elizabeth A. |
spellingShingle |
Moorhouse‐Gann, Rosemary J. Kean, Eleanor F. Parry, Gareth Valladares, Sonia Chadwick, Elizabeth A. Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
author_facet |
Moorhouse‐Gann, Rosemary J. Kean, Eleanor F. Parry, Gareth Valladares, Sonia Chadwick, Elizabeth A. |
author_sort |
Moorhouse‐Gann, Rosemary J. |
title |
Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
title_short |
Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
title_full |
Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
title_fullStr |
Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
title_sort |
dietary complexity and hidden costs of prey switching in a generalist top predator |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6375 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.6375 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.6375 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.6375 |
genre |
Anguilla anguilla Lutra lutra |
genre_facet |
Anguilla anguilla Lutra lutra |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 10, issue 13, page 6395-6408 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6375 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
13 |
container_start_page |
6395 |
op_container_end_page |
6408 |
_version_ |
1809941711158247424 |