Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius)
Body condition of animals influences the likelihood of surviving harsh environmental conditions, successfully reproducing, and resisting disease. The sum of these individual components of fitness, in turn, have consequences for the growth and persistence of wildlife populations. Here we compared the...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Zoology |
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2015
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Online Access: | https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/publications/bd0b6747-d42e-4453-aa6c-d20ee10ccfbf https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 https://researchsystem.canberra.edu.au/ws/files/57554336/298.pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942921208&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
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ftcanberrauncris:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/bd0b6747-d42e-4453-aa6c-d20ee10ccfbf 2024-05-19T07:33:09+00:00 Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) Werner, Jeffery R. Krebs, Charles J. Donker, Scott A. Sheriff, Michael J. 2015-07-23 application/pdf https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/publications/bd0b6747-d42e-4453-aa6c-d20ee10ccfbf https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 https://researchsystem.canberra.edu.au/ws/files/57554336/298.pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942921208&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Werner , J R , Krebs , C J , Donker , S A & Sheriff , M J 2015 , ' Forest or meadow : The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) ' , Canadian Journal of Zoology , vol. 93 , no. 10 , pp. 791-797 . https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 article 2015 ftcanberrauncris https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 2024-04-30T02:42:29Z Body condition of animals influences the likelihood of surviving harsh environmental conditions, successfully reproducing, and resisting disease. The sum of these individual components of fitness, in turn, have consequences for the growth and persistence of wildlife populations. Here we compared the body mass and condition of adult female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius (Osgood, 1900)), an obligate hibernator, in source and sink habitats. We tested the hypothesis that adult females would be in poorer condition in the boreal forest than in adjacent meadows. We found that, during spring, postpartum females in forests weighed less (405 ± 7 vs. 437 ± 11 g; mean ± SE) and were in poorer condition (mean (±SE) residual of mass over structural size = −11.0 ± 10.2 vs. 20.5 ± 6.1 g) compared with females in meadow-source habitat. However, by the onset of entrance into hibernation in August, forest squirrels had reached parity with meadow squirrels and no difference was found in mass (519 ± 13 vs. 520 ± 15 g; mean ± SE) or condition (residual index = −0.01 ± 0.01 vs. 0.03 ± 0.01; mean ± SE). We suggest that for squirrels in formerly occupied boreal forests, (i) poor spring body condition decreased reproductive success and (ii) achieving compensatory growth, via increased foraging, comes at the costs of higher predation risk. These costs likely contributed to the recent local extinction of arctic ground squirrels in boreal forest habitat. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Urocitellus parryii University of Canberra Research Portal Canadian Journal of Zoology 93 10 791 797 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Canberra Research Portal |
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ftcanberrauncris |
language |
English |
description |
Body condition of animals influences the likelihood of surviving harsh environmental conditions, successfully reproducing, and resisting disease. The sum of these individual components of fitness, in turn, have consequences for the growth and persistence of wildlife populations. Here we compared the body mass and condition of adult female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius (Osgood, 1900)), an obligate hibernator, in source and sink habitats. We tested the hypothesis that adult females would be in poorer condition in the boreal forest than in adjacent meadows. We found that, during spring, postpartum females in forests weighed less (405 ± 7 vs. 437 ± 11 g; mean ± SE) and were in poorer condition (mean (±SE) residual of mass over structural size = −11.0 ± 10.2 vs. 20.5 ± 6.1 g) compared with females in meadow-source habitat. However, by the onset of entrance into hibernation in August, forest squirrels had reached parity with meadow squirrels and no difference was found in mass (519 ± 13 vs. 520 ± 15 g; mean ± SE) or condition (residual index = −0.01 ± 0.01 vs. 0.03 ± 0.01; mean ± SE). We suggest that for squirrels in formerly occupied boreal forests, (i) poor spring body condition decreased reproductive success and (ii) achieving compensatory growth, via increased foraging, comes at the costs of higher predation risk. These costs likely contributed to the recent local extinction of arctic ground squirrels in boreal forest habitat. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Werner, Jeffery R. Krebs, Charles J. Donker, Scott A. Sheriff, Michael J. |
spellingShingle |
Werner, Jeffery R. Krebs, Charles J. Donker, Scott A. Sheriff, Michael J. Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
author_facet |
Werner, Jeffery R. Krebs, Charles J. Donker, Scott A. Sheriff, Michael J. |
author_sort |
Werner, Jeffery R. |
title |
Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
title_short |
Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
title_full |
Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
title_fullStr |
Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Forest or meadow:The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) |
title_sort |
forest or meadow:the consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (urocitellus parryii plesius) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/publications/bd0b6747-d42e-4453-aa6c-d20ee10ccfbf https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 https://researchsystem.canberra.edu.au/ws/files/57554336/298.pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942921208&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Urocitellus parryii |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Urocitellus parryii |
op_source |
Werner , J R , Krebs , C J , Donker , S A & Sheriff , M J 2015 , ' Forest or meadow : The consequences of habitat for the condition of female arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii plesius) ' , Canadian Journal of Zoology , vol. 93 , no. 10 , pp. 791-797 . https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0100 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
93 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
791 |
op_container_end_page |
797 |
_version_ |
1799471277247823872 |