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 evalu...
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fthshedmarkcom:oai:brage.bibsys.no:11250/2450035 2023-05-15T15:49:45+02:00 Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andres Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon Sand, Håkan 2017-02-09T12:26:51Z http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2450035 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 eng eng Norges forskningsråd: xxxxxx Andre: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Andre: Wildlife Management Swedish Association for Hunting and Wild Egen institusjon: Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Andre: Norwegian Environment Agency Egen institusjon: Sveriges lantbruksiniversität Egen institusjon: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences Andre: Office of Environmental Affairs in Hedmark County Andre: Worldwide Fund for Nature (Sweden) 284 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences 1848 Økologi Ecology Atferd Behaviour VDP::Basale biofag: 470 VDP::Basic biosciences: 470 Journal article Peer reviewed 2017 fthshedmarkcom https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 2017-10-27T17:31:40Z 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 killmore 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. Canis lupus, competition, predation, Scandinavia, Ursus arctos, Yellowstone Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Ursus arctos Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences: Brage INN Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 1848 20162368 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences: Brage INN |
op_collection_id |
fthshedmarkcom |
language |
English |
topic |
Økologi Ecology Atferd Behaviour VDP::Basale biofag: 470 VDP::Basic biosciences: 470 |
spellingShingle |
Økologi Ecology Atferd Behaviour VDP::Basale biofag: 470 VDP::Basic biosciences: 470 Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andres Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon Sand, Håkan Competition between apex predators? Brown bears decrease wolf kill rate on two continents |
topic_facet |
Økologi Ecology Atferd Behaviour VDP::Basale biofag: 470 VDP::Basic biosciences: 470 |
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 killmore 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. Canis lupus, competition, predation, Scandinavia, Ursus arctos, Yellowstone |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andres Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon Sand, Håkan |
author_facet |
Tallian, Aimee Ordiz, Andres Metz, Matthew C. Milleret, Cyril Wikenros, Camilla Smith, Douglas W. Stahler, Daniel R. Kindberg, Jonas MacNulty, Daniel R. Wabakken, Petter Swenson, Jon 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 |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2450035 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2368 |
genre |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
284 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences 1848 |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: xxxxxx Andre: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Andre: Wildlife Management Swedish Association for Hunting and Wild Egen institusjon: Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Andre: Norwegian Environment Agency Egen institusjon: Sveriges lantbruksiniversität Egen institusjon: Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences Andre: Office of Environmental Affairs in Hedmark County Andre: Worldwide Fund for Nature (Sweden) |
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 |
_version_ |
1766384774394413056 |