scholarly journals Decision letter: Tooth fracture frequency in gray wolves reflects prey availability

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Fracture Frequency ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Tooth Fracture

scholarly journals Tooth fracture frequency in gray wolves reflects prey availability

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaire Van Valkenburgh ◽  
Rolf O Peterson ◽  
Douglas W Smith ◽  
Daniel R Stahler ◽  
John A Vucetich
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Large Carnivore ◽  
Fracture Frequency ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Dental Attrition ◽  
Energetic Stress ◽  
Tooth Fracture ◽  
Dental Injuries

Exceptionally high rates of tooth fracture in large Pleistocene carnivorans imply intensified interspecific competition, given that tooth fracture rises with increased bone consumption, a behavior that likely occurs when prey are difficult to acquire. To assess the link between prey availability and dental attrition, we documented dental fracture rates over decades among three well-studied populations of extant gray wolves that differed in prey:predator ratio and levels of carcass utilization. When prey:predator ratios declined, kills were more fully consumed, and rates of tooth fracture more than doubled. This supports tooth fracture frequency as a relative measure of the difficulty of acquiring prey, and reveals a rapid response to diminished food levels in large carnivores despite risks of infection and reduced fitness due to dental injuries. More broadly, large carnivore tooth fracture frequency likely reflects energetic stress, an aspect of predator success that is challenging to quantify in wild populations.

scholarly journals Tooth Fracture Frequency in Gray Wolves Reflects Prey Availability

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaire Van Valkenburgh ◽  
Rolf O. Peterson ◽  
Douglas W. Smith ◽  
Daniel R. Stahler ◽  
John A. Vucetich
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Large Carnivore ◽  
Fracture Frequency ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Dental Attrition ◽  
Energetic Stress ◽  
Tooth Fracture ◽  
Dental Injuries

AbstractExceptionally high rates of tooth fracture in large Pleistocene carnivorans imply intensified interspecific competition, given that tooth fracture rises with increased bone consumption, a behavior that likely occurs when prey are difficult to acquire. To assess the link between prey availability and dental attrition, we documented dental fracture rates over decades among three well-studied populations of extant gray wolves that differed in prey:predator ratio and levels of carcass utilization. When prey:predator ratios declined, kills were more fully consumed, and rates of tooth fracture more than doubled. This supports tooth fracture frequency as a relative measure of the difficulty of acquiring prey, and reveals a rapid response to diminished food levels in large carnivores despite risks of infection and reduced fitness due to dental injuries. More broadly, large carnivore tooth fracture frequency likely reflects energetic stress, an aspect of predator success that is challenging to quantify in wild populations.

Response by wolves to prey variation in central Ontario

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 1511-1520 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Forbes ◽  
J. B. Theberge
Keyword(s):  
Food Habits ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Hunting Strategies ◽  
Deer Density ◽  
Dermacentor Albipictus ◽  
Winter Tick

The influence of variation in prey availability in a wolf–moose–deer–beaver predator–prey community was studied from 1987 to 1992 in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada. Density, food habits, and movements of 57 radio-collared gray wolves (Canis lupus) were compared among three regions of varying moose (Alces alces) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) spatial and temporal abundance. Relative moose and deer availability was determined annually from 16 track surveys (5 km each), 150 pellet surveys (300 × 2 m), stratified aerial surveys (2 or 3 each winter), and prey carcass data. One region contained high moose abundance and virtually no deer year-round. The second region had high moose levels with moderate levels of deer, and a third region varied in deer winter abundance annually. Wolf use of deer was high, based on the proportion of deer in winter scats (9.3–32.1% frequency of occurrence; 4.3–22.5% total biomass) and the number of deer predation cases (50 carcasses) that occurred in all three regions, even in areas where deer were considered to be very rare. Wolf use of deer was positively correlated with increases in winter deer abundance (r2 = 0.66). Wolf density correlated with deer numbers (r2 = 0.74). In winter, deer in the third region migrated to a deer yard 15 km from Algonquin Park. A remaining overwintering deer density of less than 0.02/km2 appears to have prompted a movement of wolves to the deer yard. Of the 41 moose consumed by wolves in winter, most (71%) were scavenged animals that had died with infestations of winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus). Beaver (Castor canadensis) apparently acted as important buffer prey species when deer numbers were low. The Algonquin wolf's reliance on smaller prey items appears to be a function of the fluctuating prey base, which promotes alternative hunting strategies, and the small size of the Algonquin wolf, which makes it an inefficient predator of moose. Even though moose were relatively constant in availability, and a major food item, the wolf population was responding primarily to the availability of deer.

Pregnancy Cravings: Visitation at a Food-Provisioning Site is Driven by the Reproductive Status of Bottlenose Dolphins

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248
Author(s):  
Valeria Senigaglia ◽  
Lars Bejder
Keyword(s):  
Prey Availability ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Reproductive Status ◽  
Food Provisioning ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Increase Risk ◽  
Lactating Females ◽  
Tourism Attractions ◽  
Marine Wildlife

Marine wildlife tourism attractions often use food rewards to ensure close-up encounters with freeranging animals. In Bunbury, Western Australia, the Dolphin Discovery Centre (DDC) conducts a foodprovision program where bottlenose dolphins (N = 22; between 2000 and 2018) are offered food rewards to encourage their visitation at a beach in front of the DDC. We used historical records on individual beach visits by adult female dolphins collected by the DDC from 2000 to 2018 to develop generalized mixed effects models (GLMM) to test whether the frequency of beach visitation was influenced by their reproductive status (pregnant, lactating, nonreproductive) or climatic events (El Niño-Southern Oscillation phases) that could affect prey availability. We also quantified the behavioral budget of dolphins during food-provisioning sessions and documented intra- and interspecific aggressive behaviors using individual focal follows collected in 2017–2018. Provisioned females spend most of the time resting within the interaction area (66.3%) and aggressive interactions arise as a consequence of dominance behavior over food access. Visitation rates were most influenced by reproductive status with pregnant and lactating females visiting the provisioning area more frequently (z = 2.085, p = 0.037 and z = 2.437, p = 0.014, respectively). Females that frequently visit the provisioning area expose their dependent calves to regular human interactions at an early age when they are more susceptible to behavioral conditioning. Such experiences could cause the loss of awareness towards humans and promote maladaptive behaviors such as begging that increase risk of entanglement in fishing gear, boat strikes, and propeller injuries.

scholarly journals Survival of the fattest: linking body condition to prey availability and survivorship of killer whales

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Stewart ◽  
John W. Durban ◽  
Holly Fearnbach ◽  
Lance G. Barrett‐Lennard ◽  
Paige K. Casler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Condition ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Killer Whales

scholarly journals Prey Size Decline as a Unifying Ecological Selecting Agent in Pleistocene Human Evolution

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Miki Ben-Dor ◽  
Ran Barkai
Keyword(s):  
Prey Size ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Energetic Cost ◽  
Large Prey ◽  
Biomass Density ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
Brain Expansion

We hypothesize that megafauna extinctions throughout the Pleistocene, that led to a progressive decline in large prey availability, were a primary selecting agent in key evolutionary and cultural changes in human prehistory. The Pleistocene human past is characterized by a series of transformations that include the evolution of new physiological traits and the adoption, assimilation, and replacement of cultural and behavioral patterns. Some changes, such as brain expansion, use of fire, developments in stone-tool technologies, or the scale of resource intensification, were uncharacteristically progressive. We previously hypothesized that humans specialized in acquiring large prey because of their higher foraging efficiency, high biomass density, higher fat content, and the use of less complex tools for their acquisition. Here, we argue that the need to mitigate the additional energetic cost of acquiring progressively smaller prey may have been an ecological selecting agent in fundamental adaptive modes demonstrated in the Paleolithic archaeological record. We describe several potential associations between prey size decline and specific evolutionary and cultural changes that might have been driven by the need to adapt to increased energetic demands while hunting and processing smaller and smaller game.

scholarly journals Genomic Characterization of the Three Balkan Livestock Guardian Dogs

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2289
Author(s):  
Mateja Janeš ◽  
Minja Zorc ◽  
Maja Ferenčaković ◽  
Ino Curik ◽  
Peter Dovč ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Management ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Genomic Diversity ◽  
Mountainous Areas ◽  
Autosomal Snps ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Low Diversity ◽  
Genomic Characterization

Balkan Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD) were bred to help protect sheep flocks in sparsely populated, remote mountainous areas in the Balkans. The aim of this study was genomic characterization (107,403 autosomal SNPs) of the three LGD breeds from the Balkans (Karst Shepherd, Sharplanina Dog, and Tornjak). Our analyses were performed on 44 dogs representing three Balkan LGD breeds, as well as on 79 publicly available genotypes representing eight other LGD breeds, 70 individuals representing seven popular breeds, and 18 gray wolves. The results of multivariate, phylogenetic, clustering (STRUCTURE), and FST differentiation analyses showed that the three Balkan LGD breeds are genetically distinct populations. While the Sharplanina Dog and Tornjak are closely related to other LGD breeds, the Karst Shepherd is a slightly genetically distinct population with estimated influence from German Shepard (Treemix analysis). Estimated genomic diversity was high with low inbreeding in Sharplanina Dog (Ho = 0.315, He = 0.315, and FROH>2Mb = 0.020) and Tornjak (Ho = 0.301, He = 0.301, and FROH>2Mb = 0.033) breeds. Low diversity and high inbreeding were estimated in Karst Shepherds (Ho = 0.241, He = 0.222, and FROH>2Mb = 0.087), indicating the need for proper diversity management. The obtained results will help in the conservation management of Balkan LGD dogs as an essential part of the specific grazing biocultural system and its sustainable maintenance.

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