Spatial distribution and habitat selection in coexisting species of mountain ungulates

Ecography ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëlle Darmon ◽  
Clément Calenge ◽  
Anne Loison ◽  
Jean-Michel Jullien ◽  
Daniel Maillard ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Odonjavkhlan ◽  
J.S. Alexsander ◽  
C. Mishra ◽  
G. Samelius ◽  
K. Sharma ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Mayer ◽  
Gregory P. Brown ◽  
Barbara Zimmermann ◽  
Matthew J. Greenlees ◽  
Richard Shine

Abstract:The ecological impacts of introduced species can reveal mechanisms underlying habitat selection and behaviour. We investigated the habitat use of native frog species and the invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) in tropical northern Australia to measure overlap in habitat use, and to test if the presence of the cane toad influences frog behaviour. Native frog species and the cane toad both preferred habitats close to water and unvegetated holes. However, native frogs were found further from water (on average 19.4 m) than were toads (on average 12.6 m), and preferred areas with higher vegetation (8–50 cm) than did toads, which were more abundant in vegetation lower than 8 cm. For both types of anuran, the next neighbour was more often of the same type (89% in frogs, 52% in toads) than expected by chance (observed ratio: 75% frogs vs 25% toads), reflecting these differences in habitat use. Our counts of frog abundance increased on average 14.5% in areas from which we removed cane toads temporarily. This result suggests that cane toads inhibit the activity of native anurans either by inducing avoidance, or by reducing activity. By modifying the behaviour and spatial distribution of native taxa, invasive cane toads may curtail activities such as feeding and breeding.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalee M. Tutterow ◽  
Andrew S. Hoffman ◽  
John L. Buffington ◽  
Zachary T. Truelock ◽  
William E. Peterman

AbstractFood acquisition is an important modulator of animal behavior and habitat selection that can affect fitness. Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators should select habitat patches to maximize their foraging success and net energy gain, which predators can achieve by targeting spaces with high prey availability. However, it is debated whether prey availability drives fine-scale habitat selection for predators.We assessed whether an ambush predator, the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), exhibits optimal foraging site selection based on the spatial distribution and availability of prey.We evaluated the spatial concordance of radio-telemetered timber rattlesnake foraging locations and passive infrared game camera trap detections of potential small mammal prey (Peromyscus spp., Tamias striatus, and Sciurus spp.) in a mixed-use forest in southeastern Ohio from 2016–2019. We replicated a characteristic timber rattlesnake ambush position by focusing cameras over logs and modeled small mammal encounters across the landscape in relation to remotely-sensed forest and landscape structural features. To determine whether snakes selectively forage in areas with higher prey availability, we projected the estimated prey spatial relationships across the landscape and modeled their overlap of occurrence with observed timber rattlesnake foraging locations.We broadly predicted that prey availability was greatest in mature deciduous forests, but T. striatus and Sciurus spp. exhibited greater spatial heterogeneity compared to Peromyscus spp. We also combined predicted species encounter rates to encompass a body size gradient in potential prey. The spatial distribution of cumulative small mammal encounters (i.e. overall prey availability), rather than the distribution of any one species, was highly predictive of snake foraging.Timber rattlesnakes appear to select foraging locations where the probability of encountering prey is greatest. Our study provides evidence for fine-scale optimal foraging in a low-energy, ambush predator and offers new insights into drivers of snake foraging and habitat selection.


Limnetica ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Pons, Priscila ◽  
Gonçalves, Maycon S. S. ◽  
Gil-Delgado, José A. ◽  
Ortells, Raquel

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (8) ◽  
pp. 888-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Paterson ◽  
Stacey L. Weiss ◽  
Gabriel Blouin-Demers

Competition for resources is an important mechanism that shapes ecological communities. Interspecific competition can affect habitat selection, fitness, and abundance in animals. We used a removal experiment and mark–recapture to test the hypothesis that competition with the larger and more abundant Striped Plateau Lizard (Sceloporus virgatus H.M. Smith, 1938) limits habitat selection, fitness, and abundance in Ornate Tree Lizards (Urosaurus ornatus (Baird in Baird and Girard, 1852)). Ornate Tree Lizards in the plots where Striped Plateau Lizards were removed switched between habitat types more frequently and moved farther than Ornate Tree Lizards in control plots. However, there were no significant changes in the relative densities of Ornate Tree Lizards in each habitat type or in microhabitat use. We also found no changes in growth rates, survival, or abundance of Ornate Tree Lizards in response to the removal of Striped Plateau Lizards. Our results suggest that interspecific competition was not strong enough to limit habitat use or abundance of Ornate Tree Lizards. Perhaps interspecific competition is weak between coexisting species when resource levels are not severely depleted. Therefore, it is important to consider environmental conditions when assessing the importance of interspecific competition.


1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Almquist

AbstractThis paper deals with the habitat selection of I5 species of spiders on coastal sand dunes studied by the analysis of their spatial distribution of individuals correlated to some intrinsic factors and to environmental conditions. The data are based on a total of 82I samples of I m2 each collected in the course of I7 months at Sandhammaren, SE SkÅne, Sweden. The complicated interplay between the climatic and vegetational conditions of the area and the thermal tolerances, preferences and escape reactions, as well as the resistance to desiccation of the spider species was indicated in the variation of the distribution of the population densities in the biotopes of the dunes. The temperature proved to be a critical environment factor, a main cause of the distribution of the spiders, obvious for e.g. Clubiona trivialis C. Koch, while the humidity seemed to be more important for the habitat selection of Oedothorax apicatus (Bl.).


1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
V. Monamy

The successful long-term conservation of Australian fauna relies on a clear understanding of how coexisting species partition limited resources. Such partitioning results in complex levels of habitat selection, dependent on dynamic interactions between biotic and abiotic processes. In small mammal communities where native Rattus spp. are present and there are substantial interspecific competitive effects, habitat selection by female Rattus may drive habitat use by other rodent species (particularly native mice). This has been demonstrated in Tasmania where the velvet-furred rat, R. lutreolus velutinus, and the long-tailed mouse, Pseudomys higginsi, occupy wet sclerophyll forest in sympatry. Differential habitat use is exhibited by male and female R. l. velutinus which may determine the extent of habitat use by P. higginsi. Here, I report a similar pattern of coexistence between the swamp rat, R. l. lutreolus, and the eastern chestnut mouse, P. gracilicaudatus, in coastal heathland in New South Wales. As in the Tasmanian model, female R. l. lutreolus were significantly more likely to be trapped in areas of densest vegetation, and male R. l. lutreolus and both sexes of P. gracilicaudatus were more often trapped in areas where cover was less dense. This finding introduces the possibility that there exists a clear and possibly widespread mechanism of coexistence that involves intersexual differences in habitat use by the dominant species in communities where substantive interspecific competition has been demonstrated.


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