Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests
Survival and predation of snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) has been widely studied, yet there has been little quantification of the changes in vulnerability of hares to specific predators that may result from seasonal changes in vegetation and cover. We investigated survival and causes of mortaliti...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4696674 2023-05-15T13:00:52+02:00 Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests Feierabend, Dashiell Kielland, Knut 2015-12-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696674/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26717577 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696674/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26717577 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 © 2015 Feierabend, Kielland http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited CC-BY Research Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 2016-01-17T01:16:30Z Survival and predation of snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) has been widely studied, yet there has been little quantification of the changes in vulnerability of hares to specific predators that may result from seasonal changes in vegetation and cover. We investigated survival and causes of mortalities of snowshoe hares during the late increase, peak, and decline of a population in interior Alaska. From June 2008 to May 2012, we radio-tagged 288 adult and older juvenile hares in early successional and black spruce (Picea mariana) forests and, using known-fate methods in program MARK, evaluated 85 survival models that included variables for sex, age, and body condition of hares, as well as trapping site, month, season, year, snowfall, snow depth, and air temperature. We compared the models using Akaike’s information criterion with correction for small sample size. Model results indicated that month, capture site, and body condition were the most important variables in explaining survival rates. Survival was highest in July, and more generally during summer, when alternative prey was available to predators of hares. Low survival rates coincided with molting periods, breeding activity in the spring, and the introduction of juveniles to the sample population in the fall. We identified predation as the cause of mortality in 86% of hare deaths. When the source of predation could be determined, hares were killed more often by goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) than other predators in early successional forest (30%), and more often by lynx (Lynx canadensis) than other predators in black spruce forest (31%). Great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) represented smaller proportions of hare predation, and non-predatory causes were a minor source (3%) of mortality. Because hares rely on vegetative cover for concealment from predators, we measured cover in predation sites and habitats that the hares occupied and concluded that habitat type had a greater influence on the sources of predation than the amount ... Text Accipiter gentilis Alaska Lynx PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 10 12 e0143543 |
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Research Article Feierabend, Dashiell Kielland, Knut Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Survival and predation of snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) has been widely studied, yet there has been little quantification of the changes in vulnerability of hares to specific predators that may result from seasonal changes in vegetation and cover. We investigated survival and causes of mortalities of snowshoe hares during the late increase, peak, and decline of a population in interior Alaska. From June 2008 to May 2012, we radio-tagged 288 adult and older juvenile hares in early successional and black spruce (Picea mariana) forests and, using known-fate methods in program MARK, evaluated 85 survival models that included variables for sex, age, and body condition of hares, as well as trapping site, month, season, year, snowfall, snow depth, and air temperature. We compared the models using Akaike’s information criterion with correction for small sample size. Model results indicated that month, capture site, and body condition were the most important variables in explaining survival rates. Survival was highest in July, and more generally during summer, when alternative prey was available to predators of hares. Low survival rates coincided with molting periods, breeding activity in the spring, and the introduction of juveniles to the sample population in the fall. We identified predation as the cause of mortality in 86% of hare deaths. When the source of predation could be determined, hares were killed more often by goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) than other predators in early successional forest (30%), and more often by lynx (Lynx canadensis) than other predators in black spruce forest (31%). Great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) represented smaller proportions of hare predation, and non-predatory causes were a minor source (3%) of mortality. Because hares rely on vegetative cover for concealment from predators, we measured cover in predation sites and habitats that the hares occupied and concluded that habitat type had a greater influence on the sources of predation than the amount ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Feierabend, Dashiell Kielland, Knut |
author_facet |
Feierabend, Dashiell Kielland, Knut |
author_sort |
Feierabend, Dashiell |
title |
Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
title_short |
Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
title_full |
Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal Effects of Habitat on Sources and Rates of Snowshoe Hare Predation in Alaskan Boreal Forests |
title_sort |
seasonal effects of habitat on sources and rates of snowshoe hare predation in alaskan boreal forests |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696674/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26717577 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 |
genre |
Accipiter gentilis Alaska Lynx |
genre_facet |
Accipiter gentilis Alaska Lynx |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4696674/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26717577 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 |
op_rights |
© 2015 Feierabend, Kielland http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143543 |
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PLOS ONE |
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10 |
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12 |
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e0143543 |
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