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108 results for “apex predation”
The essential habitat role of a unique coastal inlet for a widely distributed apex predator
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Data and code from: Spatially-explicit foraging by an apex predator linked to nearshore prey and their accessibility in lakes
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Data from: Integrating isotopic and nutritional niches reveals multiple dimensions of individual diet specialisation in a marine apex predator
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Microgeographic divergence of functional responses among salamanders under antagonistic selection from apex predators
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Data from: Live fast, die young: Life history traits of an apex predator exacerbate the ecological impact of a toxic invader
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Data from: Population structure, connectivity and demographic history of an apex marine predator, the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas
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Data from: Whiskers provide time-series of toxic and essential trace elements, Se:Hg molar ratios, and stable isotope values of an apex Antarctic predator, the leopard seal
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Data from: What’s on the menu? Examining native apex- and invasive meso-predator diets to understand impacts on ecosystems
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Predation risk can modify the foraging behaviour of frugivorous carnivores: implications of rewilding apex predators for plant-animal mutualisms
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Mesocarnivore community structuring in the presence of Africa’s apex predator
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Reintroduced wolves and hunting limit the abundance of a subordinate apex predator in a multi-use landscape
Top-down effects exhibited by apex predators are modulated by human impacts on community composition and species abundances. For these reasons, research supporting strong top-down effects of apex predators occurs almost entirely within protected areas rather than the much more common multi-use landscapes dominating modern ecosystems. Based on 16 years of monitoring, we developed an integrated population model to disentangle the concurrent contributions of a reintroduced apex predator, the gray wolf, human hunting, and prey abundances on vital rates and abundance of a subordinate apex predator, the puma. Increasing wolf numbers had strong negative effects on puma fecundity, and subadult and adult survival. Puma survival was also influenced by density-dependence. Overall, our results showed that puma dynamics in our multi-use landscape were more strongly influenced by top-down forces exhibited by a reintroduced apex predator, than by human hunting or bottom-up forces (prey abundance) subsidized by human activities. Quantitatively, the average annual impact of human hunting on equilibrium puma abundance was approximately equivalent to the effects of 20 wolves. Based on these results, wolves may have limited pumas across North America historically, and dictated puma scarcity in systems lacking sufficient refugia to mitigate the effects of competition.
Artificial nightlight alters the predator-prey dynamics of an apex carnivore
Artificial nightlight is increasingly recognized as an important environmental disturbance that influences the habitats and fitness of numerous species. However, its effects on wide-ranging vertebrates and their interactions remain unclear. Light pollution has the potential to amplify land-use change, and as such, answering the question of how this sensory stimulant affects behavior and habitat use of species valued for their ecological roles and economic impacts is critical for conservation and land-use planning. Here, we combined satellite-derived estimates of light pollution, with GPS-data from cougars (Puma concolor; n = 56), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus; n = 263), and locations of cougar-killed deer (n = 1,562 carcasses), to assess the effects of light exposure on mammal behavior and predator-prey relationships across wildland-urban gradients in the southwestern United States. Our results indicate that deer used the anthropogenic environments to access forage and were more active at night than their wildland conspecifics. Despite higher nightlight levels, cougars killed deer at the wildland-urban interface, but hunted them in the relatively darkest locations. Light had the greatest effect of all covariates on where cougars killed deer at the wildland-urban interface. Both species exhibited functional responses to light pollution at fine scales; individual cougars and deer with less light exposure increasingly avoided illuminated areas when exposed to greater radiance, whereas deer living in the wildland-urban interface selected elevated light levels. We conclude that integrating estimates of light pollution into ecological studies provides crucial insights into how the dynamic human footprint can alter animal behavior and ecosystem function across spatial scales.
Archive data for: Loss of predation risk from apex predators can exacerbate marine tropicalization caused by extreme climatic events
<p>1. Extreme climatic events (ECEs) and predator removal represent some of the most widespread stressors to ecosystems. Though species interactions can alter ecological effects of climate change (and vice versa), it is less understood whether, when, and how predator removal can interact with ECEs to exacerbate their effects. Understanding the circumstances under which such interactions might occur is critical because predator loss is widespread and ECEs can generate rapid phase shifts in ecosystems which can ultimately lead to tropicalization.</p> <p>2. Our goal was to determine whether loss of predation risk may be an important mechanism governing ecosystem responses to extreme events, and whether the effects of such events, such as tropicalization, can occur even when species range shifts do not. Specifically, our goal was to experimentally simulate loss of an apex predator, the tiger shark (<i>Galeocerdo cuvier</i>) effects on a recently damaged seagrass ecosystem of Shark Bay, Australia by applying documented changes to risk sensitive grazing of dugong (<i>Dugong dugon</i>) herbivores. </p> <p>3. Using a 16-month field experiment established in recently disturbed seagrass meadows, we used previous estimates of risk-sensitive dugong foraging behavior to simulate altered risk-sensitive foraging densities and strategies of dugongs consistent with apex predator loss, and tracked seagrass responses to the simulated grazing.</p> <p>4. Grazing treatments targeted and removed tropical seagrasses, which declined. However, like in other mixed-bed habitats where dugongs forage, treatments also incidentally accelerated temperate seagrass losses, revealing that herbivore behavioral changes in response to predator loss can exacerbate ECE effects and promote tropicalization, even without range expansions or introductions of novel species. </p> <p>5. Our results suggest that changes to herbivore behaviors triggered by loss of predation risk can undermine ecological resilience to ECEs, particularly where long lived herbivores are abundant. By implication, ongoing losses of apex predators may combine with increasingly frequent ECEs to amplify climate change impacts across diverse ecosystems and large spatial scales.</p>
Data from: Kinship and association in a highly social apex predator population, killer whales at Marion Island
Social structure is a core element of population biology, influenced by intrinsic and environmental factors. Intra-taxon comparisons of social organization are useful in elucidating the role of such ecological determinants of sociality. Killer whales Orcinus orca are widely distributed, social delphinids with diverse morphology, diet, behaviour, and genetics, but few studies have quantitatively examined social structure in this species. We used 7 years of individual identification data on killer whales at Marion Island, Southern Ocean, to calculate the half-weight association index among 39 individuals, creating a weighted association network. There were long-term associations between individuals, though associations were dynamic over time. We defined 8 social modules using a community detection algorithm and these typically contained 3 individuals of various ages and sexes. Pairwise genetic relatedness among 20 individuals was not significantly correlated with association index. Individuals were on average more related within than between social modules, but social modules contained related as well as unrelated individuals. Likely parent pairs of 6 individuals indicated mating between social modules.
Data from: Stream community richness predicts apex predator occupancy dynamics in riparian systems
Streams and adjacent riparian habitats represent linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that exchange materials and energy. Recognized relationships among apex predators and ecosystem biodiversity led us to hypothesize that these predators in riparian-stream systems were more likely to be found in sites with high stream quality, defined as increased ecosystem function and integrity. In our freshwater study system, river otter (Lontra canadensis) and mink (Neovison vison) play critical roles as apex predators. We used multi-season occupancy modelling across 3 sampling years (2012-2014) to compare aspects of the stream communities that explain occupancy dynamics of river otter and mink, including their interactions with other semi-aquatic mammals. We surveyed for semi-aquatic mammals at 77 sites in 12 major watersheds in southern Illinois, USA (44,526 km<sup>2</sup>). Naïve occupancy differed among years but generally increased for river otter, and remained high (≥93.5%) for mink. Increasing substrate availability increased detectability of river otter, whereas mink detection varied by survey period. Occupancy of river otter during the initial survey period was higher in sites closer to reintroduction points. Probability of colonization of river otter was positively associated with macroinvertebrate index of biotic integrity, fish species richness, and beaver presence. Sites with high species richness of fish families preferred by river otter also had increased river otter persistence. Mink occupied sites with increased fish richness, muskrat presence, and mussel community index. Taken together, our results show occupancy of both mink and river otter were predicted by aspects of prey diversity and presence, indicating the importance of community composition in occupancy dynamics of riparian predators. Ultimately, these relationships suggest that habitat heterogeneity and system stability are important to apex predator site use. However, the relative role of bottom-up and top-down forcing in stream systems remains to be resolved.
Data from: Hunger mediates apex predator's risk avoidance response in wildland-urban interface
1. Conflicts between large mammalian predators and humans present a challenge to conservation efforts, as these events drive human attitudes and policies concerning predator species. Unfortunately, generalities portrayed in many empirical carnivore landscape selection studies do not provide an explanation for a predator's occasional use of residential development preceding a carnivore-human conflict event. In some cases, predators may perceive residential development as a risk-reward tradeoff. 2. We examine whether state dependent mortality-risk sensitive foraging can explain an apex carnivore's (Puma concolor) occasional utilization of residential areas. We assess whether puma balance the risk and rewards in a system characterized by a gradient of housing densities ranging from wildland to suburban. Puma GPS location data, characterized as hunting and feeding locations, were used to assess landscape variables governing hunting success and hunting site selection. Hunting site selection behavior was then analyzed conditional on indicators of hunger state. 3. Residential development had a high energetic reward for puma, based on increases in prey availability and hunting success rates associated with increased housing density. Despite a higher energetic reward, hunting site selection analysis indicated that pumas generally avoided residential development, a landscape type attributed with higher puma mortality risk. However, when a puma experienced periods of extended hunger, risk avoidance behavior toward housing waned. 4. This study demonstrates that an apex carnivore faces a tradeoff between acquiring energetic rewards and avoiding risks associated with human housing. Periods of hunger can help explain an apex predator's occasional use of developed landscapes and thus the rare conflicts in the wildland-urban interface. Apex carnivore movement behaviors in relation to human conflicts are best understood as a three-player community level interaction incorporating wild prey distribution.
Data from: Incorporating disturbance into trophic ecology: fire history shapes mesopredator suppression by an apex predator
1.Apex predators can suppress smaller bodied 'mesopredators'. In doing so, they can provide refuge to species preyed upon by mesopredators, which is particularly important in regions where mesopredators are invasive. While most studies of mesopredator suppression focus on the response of mesopredators to human control of apex predators, other factors –including natural and anthropogenic disturbance – also drive the occurrence of apex predators and, in doing so, might shape spatial patterns of mesopredator suppression. 2.We examined the role of fire in shaping the occurrence of an apex predator and, by extension, mesopredators and small mammals in a fire-prone region of semi-arid Australia. We measured the activity of an apex predator (the dingo, Canis dingo); an invasive mesopredator it is known to suppress, the red fox (Vuples vuples); and two species of native small mammal (Mitchell's hopping mouse, Notomys mitchelli; silky mouse, Pseudomys apodemoides) that are potential prey, across 21 fire mosaics (each 12.56 km2). We used piecewise structural equation modelling and scenario analysis to explore the interactions between fire, predators and prey. 3.We found that dingoes were affected by fire history at the landscape scale, showing a preference for recently burned areas. While foxes were not directly affected by fire history, a negative association between dingoes and foxes meant that fire had an indirect impact on foxes, mediated through dingoes. Despite the suppression of foxes by dingoes, we did not observe a trophic cascade as small mammals were not negatively associated with foxes or positively associated with dingoes. 4.Synthesis and applications. Disturbance regimes have the capacity to shape patterns of mesopredator suppression when they alter the distributions of apex predators. Environmental change that promotes native predators can therefore help suppress mesopredators – a common conservation objective in regions with invasive mesopredators. The indirect consequences of disturbance regimes should be considered when managing disturbance (e.g. fire) for biodiversity conservation.
Data from: Body-size trends of the extinct giant shark Carcharocles megalodon: a deep-time perspective on marine apex predators
The extinct shark Carcharocles megalodon is one of the largest marine apex predators ever to exist. Nonetheless, little is known about its body-size variations through time and space. Here, we studied the body-size trends of C. megalodon through its temporal and geographic range to better understand its ecology and evolution. Given that this species was the last of the megatooth lineage, a group of species that shows a purported size increase through time, we hypothesized that C. megalodon also displayed this trend, increasing in size over time and reaching its largest size prior to extinction. We found that C. megalodon body-size distribution was left-skewed (suggesting a long-term selective pressure favoring larger individuals), and presented significant geographic variation (possibly as a result of the heterogeneous ecological constraints of this cosmopolitan species) over geologic time. Finally, we found that stasis was the general mode of size evolution of C. megalodon (i.e., no net changes over time), contrasting with the trends of the megatooth lineage and our hypothesis. Given that C. megalodon is a relatively long-lived species with a widely distributed fossil record, we further used this study system to provide a deep-time perspective to the understanding of the body-size trends of marine apex predators. For instance, our results suggest that (1) a selective pressure in predatory sharks for consuming a broader range of prey may favor larger individuals and produce left-skewed distributions on a geologic time scale; (2) body-size variations in cosmopolitan apex marine predators may depend on their interactions with geographically discrete communities; and (3) the inherent characteristics of shark species can produce stable sizes over geologic time, regardless of the size trends of their lineages.
Data from: Markov switching autoregressive models for interpreting vertical movement data with application to an endangered marine apex predator
1.Time series of animal movement obtained from bio-loggers are becoming widely used across all taxa. These data are nowadays of high quality, combining high resolution with precision, as the tags are able to collect for longer times and store larger quantities of data. Due to their nature, high-frequency data sequences often pose non-trivial problems in time series analysis: non-linearity, non-Normality, non-stationarity, and long memory. These issues can be tackled by modelling the data sequence as a realization of a stochastic regime switching process. 2. We suggest a novel Markov switching autoregressive model where the hidden Markov chain is non-homogeneous, with time-varying transition probabilities, whose dynamics depend on the dynamics of some contemporary categorical covariates. 3. To illustrate the use of the method, we apply it to the depth profiles of four individuals of flapper skate (Dipturus cf. intermedia) in order to identify swimming behaviours. Individual time series were obtained from data storage tags that recorded pressure every two minutes. The environmental covariates used were lunar phase (a proxy for the spring-neap tidal cycle), lunar cycle, and diel cycle. For all individuals two states (or regimes) were always selected (the autoregressive order was either three or four), representing different regimes of animal activity, i.e., state 1 for resting or horizontal swimming or slow vertical movement; state 2 for fast ascending and descending. The cycle of the four lunar phases was the only environmental covariate that explained the hidden state dynamics in all individuals, whereas lunar cycle was selected for two individuals and diel cycle for one only. 4. The method is an efficient approach to fit one-dimensional tag data using categorical environmental covariates, and to classify the observations into a small number of states representing individual behaviours of tagged individuals.
Data from: Life at the top: lake ecotype influences the foraging patterns, metabolic costs and life history of an apex fish predator
1.We used acoustic telemetry and acceleration sensors to compare population-specific measures of the metabolic costs of an apex fish predator living in four separate lakes. We chose our study species and populations to provide a strong test of recent theoretical predictions that optimal foraging by an apex fish predator in a typical aquatic environment would be consistent with feeding to satiation rather than continuous feeding. We chose four populations where the primary prey type differed along a body size gradient (from small invertebrates to large planktivorous fish) and along a thermal accessibility gradient (from easily accessible coldwater pelagic prey to less accessible warmwater epilimnetic and littoral prey). We expected that these gradients in prey type would evoke distinctly different activity gradients depending on whether predators fed to satiation (e.g. less frequent 'rest' detections where primary prey are smaller/less accessible) or fed continuously (e.g. fixed level of 'rest' detections under all prey conditions). 2. Our study organism was a fall spawning, coldwater visual apex predator (lake trout). Therefore, we focused our study on diel (early night, dawn, day, dusk, late night) changes in metabolic costs associated with summer feeding behaviour. The duration (~20 days) and fine temporal scale (~30 minutes) of our behavioural data provided a uniquely detailed picture of intra- and inter-population differences in activity patterns over a critical period in the annual growing season. 3. In all populations, diel shifts in activity were qualitatively consistent with that expected of a visual predator (e.g. resting state detections were most frequent at night). 4. Between-lake differences in daytime thermal experience were qualitatively consistent with between-lake differences in the location of primary prey (e.g. excursions to warm habitats were common in lakes with epilimnetic/littoral fish as primary prey and relatively rare in lakes with pelagic coldwater invertebrates/fish as primary prey). 5. Daytime activity patterns were consistent with feeding to satiation rather than continuous feeding: (a) individuals in all four populations exhibited clearly delineated bouts of resting behaviour and active behaviour; (b) the frequency of resting bouts and the resultant overall cost of daily activity were strongly associated with the size and accessibility of prey – in lakes with smaller and/or less accessible prey, predators rested less frequently, exhibited marginally higher costs when active and had higher overall daytime activity costs. Within each lake, similar changes in activity occurred concurrently with diel changes in prey accessibility/relative density.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.