scholarly journals Modelling prey consumption and switching by UK grey seals

2013 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Smout ◽  
Anna Rindorf ◽  
Philip S. Hammond ◽  
John Harwood ◽  
Jason Matthiopoulos

Abstract Smout, S., Rindorf, A., Hammond, P. S., Harwood, J., and Matthiopoulos, J. Modelling prey consumption and switching by UK grey seals. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71: . Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are adaptable generalist predators whose diet includes commercial fish species such as cod. Consumption by the seals may reduce the size of some fish stocks or have an adverse effect on stock recovery programmes, especially because predation may trap sparse prey populations in a “predator pit”. To assess the likely impact of such effects, it is important to know how consumption and consequent predation mortality respond to the changing availability of prey. We present a model of grey seal consumption as a function of the availability of multiple prey types [a Multi-Species Functional Response (MSFR)]. We fit this MSFR to data on seal diet and prey availability (based on the overlap between the distributions of predators and prey). Bayesian methodology was employed to account for uncertainties in both dependent and independent variables, improve estimation convergence by the use of informative priors, and allow the estimation of missing data on prey availability. Both hyperbolic (Type 2) and sigmoidal (Type 3) functional response models were fitted to the data and the Type 3 model was clearly favoured during model selection, supporting the conclusion that seal–prey encounter rates change with prey abundance (sometimes referred to as “switching”). This suggests that some prey species may be vulnerable to predator pit effects. The fitted model reproduced contrasts in diet observed between different regions/years and, importantly, added information to the prior distributions of prey abundance in areas where the availability of some prey species (such as sandeels) was not known. This suggests that the diet of predators such as seals could provide information about the abundance and distribution of prey in areas that are not covered by fisheries and research surveys.

Author(s):  
Janneke Ransijn ◽  
Phillip Hammond ◽  
Mardik Leopold ◽  
Signe Sveegaard ◽  
Sophie Smout

1. Quantifying consumption and prey choice for marine predator species is key to understanding their interaction with prey species, fisheries, and the ecosystem as a whole. However, parameterising a functional response for large predators can be challenging because of the difficulty in obtaining the required datasets on predator diet and the availability of multiple prey species. 2. This study modelled a Multi-Species Functional Response (MSFR) to describe the relationship between consumption by harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and the availability of multiple prey species in the southern North Sea. Bayesian methodology was employed to estimate MSFR parameters and to incorporate uncertainties in diet and prey availability estimates. Prey consumption was estimated from stomach contents data of stranded harbour porpoises. Prey availability to harbour porpoises was estimated based on the spatial overlap between prey distributions, estimated from fish survey data, and porpoise foraging range in the days prior to stranding predicted from telemetry data. 3. Results indicated a strong preference for sandeel in the study area. Prey switching behaviour (change in preference dependent on prey abundance) was confirmed by the favoured Type III functional response model. Variation in the size of the foraging range (estimated area where harbour porpoises could have foraged prior to stranding) did not alter the overall pattern of the results or conclusions. 4. Integrating datasets on prey consumption from strandings, predator foraging distribution using telemetry and prey availability from fish surveys into the modelling approach provides a methodological framework that may be appropriate for fitting MSFRs for other predators.


Author(s):  
Kalyan Manna ◽  
Malay Banerjee

Generalist predators exploit multiple food sources and it is economical for them to reduce predation pressure on a particular prey species when their density level becomes comparatively less. As a result, a prey-predator system tends to become more stable in the presence of a generalist predator. In this article, we investigate the roles of both the diffusion and nonlocal prey consumption in shaping the population distributions for interacting generalist predator and its focal prey species. In this regard, we first derive the conditions associated with Turing instability through linear analysis. Then, we perform a weakly nonlinear analysis and derive a cubic Stuart-Landau equation governing amplitude of the resulting patterns near Turing bifurcation boundary. Further, we present a wide variety of numerical simulations to corroborate our analytical findings as well as to illustrate some other complex spatiotemporal dynamics. Interestingly, our study reveals the existence of traveling wave solutions connecting two spatially homogeneous coexistence steady states in Turing domain under the influence of temporal bistability phenomenon. Also, our investigation shows that nonlocal prey consumption acts as a stabilizing force for the system dynamics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipankar Ghosh ◽  
Prasun K. Santra ◽  
Abdelalim A. Elsadany ◽  
Ghanshaym S. Mahapatra

Abstract This paper focusses on developing two species, where only prey species suffers by a contagious disease. We consider the logistic growth rate of the prey population. The interaction between susceptible prey and infected prey with predator is presumed to be ruled by Holling type II and I functional response, respectively. A healthy prey is infected when it comes in direct contact with infected prey, and we also assume that predator-dependent disease spreads within the system. This research reveals that the transmission of this predator-dependent disease can have critical repercussions for the shaping of prey–predator interactions. The solution of the model is examined in relation to survival, uniqueness and boundedness. The positivity, feasibility and the stability conditions of the fixed points of the system are analysed by applying the linearization method and the Jacobian matrix method.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xiangzeng Kong ◽  
Zhiqin Chen ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Wensheng Yang

We propose and study the permanence of the following periodic Holling III predator-prey system with stage structure for prey and both two predators which consume immature prey. Sufficient and necessary conditions which guarantee the predator and the prey species to be permanent are obtained.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Can-Yun Huang ◽  
Min Zhao ◽  
Hai-Feng Huo

A stage-structured three-species predator-prey model with Beddington-DeAngelis and Holling II functional response is introduced. Based on the comparison theorem, sufficient and necessary conditions which guarantee the predator and the prey species to be permanent are obtained. An example is also presented to illustrate our main results.


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Caley ◽  
Geoffrey R. Hosack ◽  
Simon C. Barry

Wildlife collision data are ubiquitous, though challenging for making ecological inference due to typically irreducible uncertainty relating to the sampling process. We illustrate a new approach that is useful for generating inference from predator data arising from wildlife collisions. By simply conditioning on a second prey species sampled via the same collision process, and by using a biologically realistic numerical response functions, we can produce a coherent numerical response relationship between predator and prey. This relationship can then be used to make inference on the population size of the predator species, including the probability of extinction. The statistical conditioning enables us to account for unmeasured variation in factors influencing the runway strike incidence for individual airports and to enable valid comparisons. A practical application of the approach for testing hypotheses about the distribution and abundance of a predator species is illustrated using the hypothesized red fox incursion into Tasmania, Australia. We estimate that conditional on the numerical response between fox and lagomorph runway strikes on mainland Australia, the predictive probability of observing no runway strikes of foxes in Tasmania after observing 15 lagomorph strikes is 0.001. We conclude there is enough evidence to safely reject the null hypothesis that there is a widespread red fox population in Tasmania at a population density consistent with prey availability. The method is novel and has potential wider application.


2021 ◽  
Vol 912 (1) ◽  
pp. 012105
Author(s):  
E Jumilawaty ◽  
N Namira ◽  
A Anggelicha ◽  
A Hartanto

Abstract Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) is a widespread avian species inhabiting a variety of natural and artificial sites. Asam Kumbang Crocodile Park is one of establishments that occupied some portions of B. ibis habitat with no recent information on the food resource and prey availability for the viability of B. ibis. To this aim, we collected 10 random individuals of B. ibis to be sacrificed for gut content analysis of prey species. A total of 19 taxa was found as prey items in the gut of B. ibis with the dominant group from insects (Orthoptera, Scolopendromorpha). The diversity of prey species was categorized as moderate with intraspecific diet variation which formed four guilds that fed on specific taxa namely Group 1 (Haplotaxida, Lepidoptera, Anurans), Group 2 (Blattodea, Coleoptera, Araneae), Group 3 (Orthoptera, Scolopendromorpha); and Group 4 (Dermaptera, Squamata). Oxya chinensis and Oxya velox are important rice grasshopper pests that were also found in the gut of B. ibis reflecting their potential function as biological control agent.


1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. G. Poole ◽  
D. A. Boag

Diet and aspects of feeding behaviour in a population of gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) in the Northwest Territories were examined between 1984 and 1986. Three prey species, rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus), arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii), and arctic hare (Lepus arcticus), composed 96.5% of total prey biomass identified. Ptarmigan and hares were taken in May and June of all years (98.2% of biomass). Juvenile squirrels were used extensively in July and August of 1984 and 1985 but not in 1986, when squirrel production fell to almost zero; ptarmigan continued to be the dominant prey species throughout that summer. Because densities of breeding ptarmigan remained relatively constant during the study, but those of juvenile ground squirrels did not, it appeared that gyrfalcons responded functionally to varying availability of prey. Mean weight (250 g) of prey taken by male gyrfalcons was significantly less than the weight (330 g) of prey taken by females. As predicted by optimal foraging theory, average size of prey brought to the nest increased as time away from the nest increased. Conditions of food abundance were observed at most nests, suggesting that the amount of food available during the nestling period was not limiting production. We suggest that annual production is a function of spacing of pairs, which is set during courtship and prelaying, when prey availability is at its yearly low and when males must forage for both members of the pair. The fact that most gyrfalcon pairs initiated laying only after the spring arrival of migrating ptarmigan is consistent with this conclusion.


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