Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness
Animals should adapt their foraging habits, changing their dietary breadth in response to variation in the richness and availability of food resources. Understanding how species modify their dietary breadth according to variation in resource richness would support predictions of their responses to e...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78042 https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197 |
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ftunivpretoria:oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78042 2023-05-15T15:51:09+02:00 Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness Ferretti, Francesco Lovari, Sandro Lucherini, Mauro Hayward, Matt W. Stephens, Philip A. 2021-01-15T05:48:16Z http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78042 https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197 en eng Wiley http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78042 Ferretti, F., Lovari, S., Lucherini, M. et al. 2020, 'Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness', Mammal Review, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 291-303. 0305-1838 (print) 1365-2907 (online) doi:10.1111/mam.12197 © 2020 The Mammal Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article : 'Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness', Mammal Review, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 291-303, 2020, doi : 10.1111/mam.12197. The definite version is available at : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652907. Canidae Felidae Food habits Interspecific competition Large carnivores Predator‐prey relationships Postprint Article 2021 ftunivpretoria https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197 2022-05-31T10:48:01Z Animals should adapt their foraging habits, changing their dietary breadth in response to variation in the richness and availability of food resources. Understanding how species modify their dietary breadth according to variation in resource richness would support predictions of their responses to environmental changes that alter prey communities. We evaluated relationships between the dietary breadth of large terrestrial carnivores and the local richness of large prey (defined as the number of species). We tested alternative predictions suggested by ecological and evolutionary theories: with increasing prey richness, species would (1) show a more diverse diet, thus broadening their dietary breadth, or (2) narrow their dietary breadth, indicating specialisation on a smaller number of prey. We collated data from 505 studies of the diets of 12 species of large terrestrial mammalian carnivores to model relationships between two indices of dietary breadth and local prey richness. For the majority of species, we found no evidence for narrowing dietary breadth (i.e. increased specialisation) with increasing prey richness. Although the snow leopard and the dhole appeared to use a lower number of large prey species with increasing prey richness, larger sample sizes are needed to support this result. With increasing prey richness, the five largest carnivores (puma Puma concolor, spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta, jaguar Panthera onca, lion Panthera leo, and tiger Panthera tigris), plus the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and the grey wolf Canis lupus (which are usually top predators in the areas from which data were obtained), showed greater dietary breadth and/or used a greater number of large prey species (i.e. increased generalism). We suggest that dominant large carnivores encounter little competition in expanding their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness; conversely, the dietary niche of subordinate large carnivores is limited by competition with larger, dominant predators. We suggest that, over evolutionary time, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx University of Pretoria: UPSpace Mammal Review 50 3 291 303 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Pretoria: UPSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivpretoria |
language |
English |
topic |
Canidae Felidae Food habits Interspecific competition Large carnivores Predator‐prey relationships |
spellingShingle |
Canidae Felidae Food habits Interspecific competition Large carnivores Predator‐prey relationships Ferretti, Francesco Lovari, Sandro Lucherini, Mauro Hayward, Matt W. Stephens, Philip A. Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
topic_facet |
Canidae Felidae Food habits Interspecific competition Large carnivores Predator‐prey relationships |
description |
Animals should adapt their foraging habits, changing their dietary breadth in response to variation in the richness and availability of food resources. Understanding how species modify their dietary breadth according to variation in resource richness would support predictions of their responses to environmental changes that alter prey communities. We evaluated relationships between the dietary breadth of large terrestrial carnivores and the local richness of large prey (defined as the number of species). We tested alternative predictions suggested by ecological and evolutionary theories: with increasing prey richness, species would (1) show a more diverse diet, thus broadening their dietary breadth, or (2) narrow their dietary breadth, indicating specialisation on a smaller number of prey. We collated data from 505 studies of the diets of 12 species of large terrestrial mammalian carnivores to model relationships between two indices of dietary breadth and local prey richness. For the majority of species, we found no evidence for narrowing dietary breadth (i.e. increased specialisation) with increasing prey richness. Although the snow leopard and the dhole appeared to use a lower number of large prey species with increasing prey richness, larger sample sizes are needed to support this result. With increasing prey richness, the five largest carnivores (puma Puma concolor, spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta, jaguar Panthera onca, lion Panthera leo, and tiger Panthera tigris), plus the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and the grey wolf Canis lupus (which are usually top predators in the areas from which data were obtained), showed greater dietary breadth and/or used a greater number of large prey species (i.e. increased generalism). We suggest that dominant large carnivores encounter little competition in expanding their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness; conversely, the dietary niche of subordinate large carnivores is limited by competition with larger, dominant predators. We suggest that, over evolutionary time, ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ferretti, Francesco Lovari, Sandro Lucherini, Mauro Hayward, Matt W. Stephens, Philip A. |
author_facet |
Ferretti, Francesco Lovari, Sandro Lucherini, Mauro Hayward, Matt W. Stephens, Philip A. |
author_sort |
Ferretti, Francesco |
title |
Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
title_short |
Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
title_full |
Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
title_fullStr |
Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
title_full_unstemmed |
Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
title_sort |
only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78042 https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197 |
genre |
Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78042 Ferretti, F., Lovari, S., Lucherini, M. et al. 2020, 'Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness', Mammal Review, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 291-303. 0305-1838 (print) 1365-2907 (online) doi:10.1111/mam.12197 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Mammal Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article : 'Only the largest terrestrial carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness', Mammal Review, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 291-303, 2020, doi : 10.1111/mam.12197. The definite version is available at : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652907. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197 |
container_title |
Mammal Review |
container_volume |
50 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
291 |
op_container_end_page |
303 |
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1766386207299731456 |