Data for the article: Trophic niche partitioning between two prey and their incidental predators revealed various threats for an endangered species ...

• Main Authors: Rioux, Ève, Pelletier, Fanie, St-Laurent, Martin-Hugues
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2022
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Caribou Range; caribou; Rangifer tarandus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8gtht76r7; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.8gtht76r7

Documenting trophic niche partitioning and resource use within a community is critical to evaluate underlying mechanisms of coexistence, competition or predation. Detailed knowledge about foraging is essential as it may influence the vital rates, which, in turn, can affect trophic relationships between species and population dynamics. The aims of this study were to evaluate resource and trophic niche partitioning in summer/autumn between the endangered Atlantic-Gaspésie caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) population, moose (Alces americanus) and their incidental predators, the black bear (Ursus americanus) and coyote (Canis latrans), and to quantify the extent to which these predators consumed caribou. Bayesian isotopic analysis showed a small overlap in trophic niche for the two sympatric ungulates suggesting a low potential for resource competition. Our result also revealed that caribou occupied a larger isotopic niche area than moose, suggesting a greater diversity of resources used by caribou. Not ... : We captured 44 caribou in the winter of 2013 and 2014 across the Gaspésie caribou range using a net gun fired from a helicopter. We collected caribou hair samples from the rump of the animal, and dried and stored it in paper bags at ambient temperature until processing. We used the same sampling and conservation protocol for hair samples collected from 90 moose, 127 coyote and 57 black bear carcasses across the three Wildlife Reserves that overlap the Gaspésie National Park (Fig. S1). Moose were harvested between September and October 2018 during the sport hunting season whereas coyotes and bears were trapped during the annual predator control program between June 2016 and October 2018 across the Gaspésie caribou range. The capture and manipulation protocols were authorized by the Animal Welfare Committee [Université du Québec à Rimouski (hereafter UQAR) certificate #CPA-52-13-112; Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (hereafter MFFP) certificate #CPA FAUNE 13-08]. We collected samples ...