Eurasian lynx fitness shows little variation across Scandinavian human-dominated landscapes

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: López-Bao, José Vicente, Aronsson, Malin, Linnell, John D. C., Odden, John, Persson, Jens, Andrén, Henrik
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
• Subjects: Article; Lynx; Lynx lynx lynx
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6586631/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31222101; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45569-2

Despite extensive research on the ecology and behavioural adaptations of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes, information about the fitness consequences of sharing landscapes is still limited. We assessed the variation in three consecutive components of female fitness: the probability of reproduction, litter size and juvenile survival in relation to environmental and human factors in a solitary carnivore, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), occurring in human-dominated landscapes in Scandinavia. We used demographic data from 57 radio-collared adult females between 1995–2011 (126 radio-years). Overall, the yearly probability of female reproduction was 0.80, mean litter size was 2.34 (range 1–4) and the probability to find a female that reproduced in the spring being accompanied by at least one offspring during the subsequent winter was 0.70. We did not find evidence that food availability was a key factor influencing female fitness. Female lynx may adapt to food availability when establishing their home ranges by adopting an obstinate strategy, ensuring a minimum amount of prey necessary for survival and reproduction even during periods of prey scarcity. In human-dominated landscapes, where sufficient prey are available for lynx, mortality risk may have a larger influence on lynx population dynamics compared to food availability. Our results suggest that lynx population dynamics in human-dominated landscapes may be mainly driven by human impacts on survival.