Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem
Studying the effects of prey distribution on predator behaviour is complex in systems where there are multiple prey species. The role of prey density in predator behaviour is rarely studied in closed ecosystems of one predator species and one prey species, despite these being an ideal opportunity to...
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ftuliverpoolrdc:oai:datacat.liverpool.ac.uk:2119 2023-05-15T13:59:07+02:00 Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem Busdieker, Karl Patrick, Samantha Trevail, Alice Descamps, Sébastien 2019-12-16 https://datacat.liverpool.ac.uk/2119/ English eng University of Liverpool Busdieker, Karl orcid:0000-0002-6861-9905 , Patrick, Samantha, Trevail, Alice orcid:0000-0002-6459-5213 and Descamps, Sébastien (2019) Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem. [Data Collection] Data Collection NonPeerReviewed 2019 ftuliverpoolrdc 2023-01-26T23:26:42Z Studying the effects of prey distribution on predator behaviour is complex in systems where there are multiple prey species. The role of prey density in predator behaviour is rarely studied in closed ecosystems of one predator species and one prey species, despite these being an ideal opportunity to test these hypotheses. In this study, we investigate the effect of prey density on the foraging behaviour of a predatory species in an isolated Antarctic ecosystem of effectively a single predatory species, and a single prey species. We use resource selection models to compare prey density in areas utilised by predators (obtained from fine-scale GPS telemetry data) to prey density at randomly generated points (pseudo-absences) throughout the available area. We demonstrate that prey density of breeding Antarctic petrels (Thalassoica antarctica) is negatively associated with the probability of habitat use in its only predator, the south polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki). Skuas are less likely to utilise habitats with higher petrel densities, reducing predation in these areas but these effects are present during chick rearing only, but not during incubation. We suggest that this might be caused by successful group defense strategies employed by petrel chicks, primarily spitting oil at predators. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Catharacta maccormicki Thalassoica antarctica DataCat: The Research Data Catalogue (University of Liverpool) Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCat: The Research Data Catalogue (University of Liverpool) |
op_collection_id |
ftuliverpoolrdc |
language |
English |
description |
Studying the effects of prey distribution on predator behaviour is complex in systems where there are multiple prey species. The role of prey density in predator behaviour is rarely studied in closed ecosystems of one predator species and one prey species, despite these being an ideal opportunity to test these hypotheses. In this study, we investigate the effect of prey density on the foraging behaviour of a predatory species in an isolated Antarctic ecosystem of effectively a single predatory species, and a single prey species. We use resource selection models to compare prey density in areas utilised by predators (obtained from fine-scale GPS telemetry data) to prey density at randomly generated points (pseudo-absences) throughout the available area. We demonstrate that prey density of breeding Antarctic petrels (Thalassoica antarctica) is negatively associated with the probability of habitat use in its only predator, the south polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki). Skuas are less likely to utilise habitats with higher petrel densities, reducing predation in these areas but these effects are present during chick rearing only, but not during incubation. We suggest that this might be caused by successful group defense strategies employed by petrel chicks, primarily spitting oil at predators. |
format |
Text |
author |
Busdieker, Karl Patrick, Samantha Trevail, Alice Descamps, Sébastien |
spellingShingle |
Busdieker, Karl Patrick, Samantha Trevail, Alice Descamps, Sébastien Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
author_facet |
Busdieker, Karl Patrick, Samantha Trevail, Alice Descamps, Sébastien |
author_sort |
Busdieker, Karl |
title |
Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
title_short |
Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
title_full |
Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
title_fullStr |
Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
title_full_unstemmed |
Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem |
title_sort |
prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an antarctic ecosystem |
publisher |
University of Liverpool |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://datacat.liverpool.ac.uk/2119/ |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Catharacta maccormicki Thalassoica antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Catharacta maccormicki Thalassoica antarctica |
op_relation |
Busdieker, Karl orcid:0000-0002-6861-9905 , Patrick, Samantha, Trevail, Alice orcid:0000-0002-6459-5213 and Descamps, Sébastien (2019) Prey density affects predator foraging strategy in an Antarctic ecosystem. [Data Collection] |
_version_ |
1766267485106995200 |