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44 results for “Mammalian herbivores”
Mammalian herbivores restrict the altitudinal range limits of three alpine grass species (transplant and herbivore exclusion experiment and demographic data from natural populations), West Elk Mountains, Colorado, USA 2015-2018
Though rarely experimentally tested, biotic interactions have long been hypothesized to limit low-elevation range boundaries of species. We tested the effects of herbivory on three alpine-restricted plant species by transplanting plants below (novel), at the edge (limit), or in the center (core) of their current elevational range and factorially fencing-out above- and belowground mammals in the West Elk Mountains, Colorado, USA from 2015-2018. Herbivore damage was greater in range limit and novel habitats than in range cores. Exclosures increased plant biomass and reproduction more in novel habitats than in range cores, suggesting demographic costs of novel interactions with herbivores. We then used demographic models to project population growth rates, which increased 5-20% more under herbivore exclosure at range limit and novel sites than in core habitats. Our results identify mammalian herbivores as key drivers of the low-elevation range limits of alpine plants and indicate that upward encroachment of herbivores could trigger local extinctions by depressing plant population growth.
Body size modulates the extent of seasonal diet switching by large mammalian herbivores in Yellowstone National Park
<div> <p><span>Large mammalian herbivores vary their diets markedly with changes in resource availability yet the ways that seasonal changes in individual foraging behaviors scale up to reconfigure complex trophic networks are poorly understood. Two years of dietary DNA data enabled us to quantify fine-grained dietary variation within and among populations of five large herbivore species at Yellowstone National Park, revealing remarkably strong and significant correlations between body size and five key indicators of diet seasonality (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.71–0.80). Data from GPS collars implicated seasonal changes in each species' movement- and habitat-use patterns as potential determinants of foraging constraints and specializations that give rise to the strong allometry in diet composition. Bison and elk showed relatively muted seasonal changes compared to smaller species that exhibited stronger switches. Whereas the taxonomic breadth of individual diets contracted for all species in winter, larger species generally consumed a greater functional diversity of plants and thus maintained more unique dietary niches under resource limitations.</span></p> </div>
Functional traits—not nativeness—shape the effects of large mammalian herbivores on plant communities
<p>Large mammalian herbivores (megafauna) have experienced extinctions and declines since prehistory. Introduced megafauna have partly counteracted these losses yet are thought to have unusually negative effects compared to native megafauna. Using a meta-analysis of 3,995 plot-scale plant abundance and diversity responses from 221 studies, we found no evidence that megafauna impacts were shaped by nativeness, 'invasiveness', 'feralness', coevolutionary history, or functional and phylogenetic novelty. Nor was there evidence that introduced megafauna facilitate introduced plants more than native megafauna. Instead, we found strong evidence that functional traits shaped megafauna impacts, with larger-bodied and bulk-feeding megafauna promoting plant diversity. Our work suggests that trait-based ecology provides better insight into interactions between megafauna and plants than concepts of nativeness.</p>
Linking diet switching to reproductive performance across populations of two Critically Endangered mammalian herbivores
<p>Data associated with Harvey Sky, N., Britnell, J., Antwis, R. <em>et al.</em> Linking diet switching to reproductive performance across populations of two critically endangered mammalian herbivores. <em>Commun Biol</em> <strong>7</strong>, 333 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05983-3</p> <p>The data deposited here includes raw metabarcoding output fasta files and some processed metabarcoding and sample data in xslx files. We include a more detailed description of each file below.</p> <p>Data regarding Kenyan black rhino and Grevy’s zebra are treated as sensitive and confidential. There are therefore restrictions on the data that we can make available. Due to these confidentiality considerations, the sample data stored here does not include locations of sample collection within each reserve for either species, or the identity or breeding data for black rhino. It also only includes the final processed values for NDVI and rainfall. The remote sensing data is available from the repositories cited in the methods, but we cannot provide the shapefiles or other data used to calculate the final values for each sample. </p> <p><em><strong>Raw fasta files_plants.zip</strong></em></p> <p>A zipped folder containing the raw fasta files which were the output from the MiSeq sequencing of dietary plants in the faecal samples for both black rhino and Grevy's zebra. Within the zipped folder, the first part of the title of each fasta.gz file is the sample code (S1, S2, S3 etc), which allows you to cross reference these files with the sample data and processed sequencing data in the xslx files. Files with R1 in the title are foward reads, and R2 are reverse reads. </p> <p><em><strong>Raw fasta files_bacteria.zip</strong></em></p> <p>A zipped folder containing the raw fasta files which were the output from the MiSeq sequencing of microbiome bateria in the faecal samples for both black rhino and Grevy's zebra. Within the zipped folder, the first part of the title of each fasta.gz file is the sample code (S1, S2, S3 etc), which allows you to cross reference these files with the sample data and processed sequencing data in the xslx files. Files with R1 in the title are foward reads, and R2 are reverse reads. </p> <p><em><strong>Sample data and processed metabarcoding data_Black rhino.xlsx</strong></em></p> <p><em>Sample data tab</em></p> <p>The data that we are able to share that is associated with each black rhino sample.</p> <p>SampleID - The code used to identiy each sample which allows it be cross-referenced with other tabs and the fasta files. </p> <p>IndividualID - We are not able to share rhino names or other identifiers, but we have given each individual a unique number so that it can be seen which samples came from the same individuals. </p> <p>NDVI - Mean NDVI of each individual's area of utilisation in the 10-day period within which the sample was collected. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p>Rainfall - Cumulative rainfall over the 30 days previous to sample collection for the 0.05 degree pixel under the sample. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p>Season - Post is the post-rain sampling season June-July 2018. Pre is the pre-rain sampling season January-March 2019. </p> <p>Reserve - The reserve that the sample was collected on. </p> <p>Date - The date of sample collection. </p> <p>Dietary breadth - Shannon-Wiener index of dietary alpha diversity. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. NA signifies that the number of reads returned for that sample was under the threshold that signified sequencing failure for the dietary plant metabarcoding.</p> <p>Poaceae, Fabaceae, Ebenaceae - The relative abundance of each of these three dietary plant families that were the focus of our analyses. The method used to calculate these is described in the methods of the article. NA signifies that the number of reads returned for that sample was under the threshold that signified sequencing failure for the dietary plant metabarcoding.</p> <p><em>Bacteria numbers of reads</em></p> <p>The number of reads assigned to each bacterial ASV found in each sample. </p> <p><em>Bacteria sequences and reads</em></p> <p>The sequence of each ASV, and the taxa assigned to each sequence in the microbiome metabarcoding. The method for taxonomic assignment is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p><em>Plant numbers of reads</em></p> <p>The number of reads assigned to each dietary plant ASV found in each sample. </p> <p><em>Plant sequences and reads</em></p> <p>The sequence of each ASV, and the taxa assigned to each sequence in the dietary plant metabarcoding. The method for taxonomic assignment is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Sample data and processed metabarcoding data_Grevy's zebra.xlsx</strong></em></p> <p><em>Sample data tab</em></p> <p>The data that we are able to share that is associated with each Grevy's zebra sample.</p> <p>Sample ID - The code used to identiy each sample which allows it be cross-referenced with other tabs and the fasta files. </p> <p>NDVI - Mean NDVI of each individual's area of utilisation in the 10-day period within which the sample was collected. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p>Rainfall - Cumulative rainfall over the 30 days previous to sample collection for the 0.05 degree pixel under the sample. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p>Reserve - The reserve that the sample was collected on. </p> <p>Season - Post is the post-rain sampling season July-August 2018. Pre is the pre-rain sampling season January-February 2019. </p> <p>Date - The date of sample collection. </p> <p>Dietary breadth - Shannon-Wiener index of dietary alpha diversity. The method used to calculate this is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p>Poaceae, Fabaceae - The relative abundance of each of these two dietary plant families that were the focus of our analyses. The method used to calculate these is described in the methods of the article. NA signifies that the number of reads returned for that sample was under the threshold that signified sequencing failure for the dietary plant metabarcoding.</p> <p>Indigofera - The relative abundance of each of this Fabaceae genus was included in our analyses. The method used to calculate these is described in the methods of the article. NA signifies that the number of reads returned for that sample was under the threshold that signified sequencing failure for the dietary plant metabarcoding.</p> <p><em>Bacteria numbers of reads</em></p> <p>The number of reads assigned to each bacterial ASV found in each sample. </p> <p><em>Bacteria sequences and reads</em></p> <p>The sequence of each ASV, and the taxa assigned to each sequence in the microbiome metabarcoding. The method for taxonomic assignment is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p><em>Plant numbers of reads</em></p> <p>The number of reads assigned to each dietary plant ASV found in each sample. </p> <p><em>Plant sequences and reads</em></p> <p>The sequence of each ASV, and the taxa assigned to each sequence in the dietary plant metabarcoding. The method for taxonomic assignment is described in the methods of the article. </p> <p> </p>
Behavioral responses to mammalian grazing expose insect herbivores to elevated risk of avian predation
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Functional traits—not nativeness—shape the effects of large mammalian herbivores on plant communities
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Body size modulates the extent of seasonal diet switching by large mammalian herbivores in Yellowstone National Park
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Multiple dimensions of dietary diversity in large mammalian herbivores
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Chronic browsing by an introduced mammalian herbivore in a tropical island alters species composition and functional traits of forest understory plant communities
<p>Mammalian herbivores have large-scale impacts on vegetation, altering structure and species composition, especially in tropical grasslands and savannas. However, there is limited understanding of the potential impacts of mammalian herbivores in tropical wet forests, where they are typically less abundant. We investigated the effects of an introduced mammalian herbivore chital (<em>Axis axis</em>) on vegetation structure, composition and leaf functional traits of tropical evergreen forests of the Andaman Islands, India. Across seven islands, representing a gradient of herbivore densities, increasing chital presence was associated with decreased understory richness, understory density and adult tree richness, but was not related to adult tree density or size class distributions. We also found a significant decrease in community-level leaf palatability traits (specific leaf area decreased and leaf thickness increased) with increasing chital habitat use. This community-level shift in leaf trait values was better explained by intra-specific variation in leaf traits across islands rather than changes in species composition. In summary, we show persistent long-term impacts of an introduced mammalian herbivore on understory tropical tree communities although there is little impact on adult tree communities. Our results also show that functional traits of species can be altered in response to novel herbivory, even at herbivore densities where there are no detectable impacts on adult forest structure or composition. Such altered functional traits may potentially alter ecosystem functioning in these forests even without changes in vegetation structure.</p>
The burden of size and growth for the juveniles of large mammalian herbivores: structural and functional constraints in the feeding biology of juveniles relative to adults in red kangaroos, Osphranter rufus
<p>Juvenile mammals in their post weaning developmental stages face many challenges in transitioning to adulthood. Among large grazing species such as ruminant bovids and cervids an overarching challenge is acquiring and processing sufficient nutrients to survive and grow, with a gut that may not yet be fully developed. Marsupial kangaroos of Australia face similar challenges; they also digest vegetation by fermentation in a large foregut. In red kangaroos, Osphranter rufus (= Macropus rufus), the dominant species of Australia's arid interior, females may breed continuously; however, juvenile recruitment to the adult population is irregular and coincident with sporadic rainfall. As compared with adult females the nutritional requirements of juvenile O. rufus are high in relation to their body mass (BM), largely due to the cost of their rapid growth. We examined processes that juveniles have in their morphology, physiology and behaviours to meet their elevated nutritional needs, by comparing recently weaned juveniles of both sexes and adult female O. rufus in their desert habitat. Features studied include relative body sizes, relative dimensions and capacities of principal gut regions, the foregut, small intestine, caecum and large intestine with rectum. Also examined were digesta attributes and rates of digesta excretion. Additionally, the rates of change in skull parameters and dental characteristics to maturity were assessed. Field determinations of diet choice were made for both age classes. In juveniles the content masses of major gut structures were related to body mass (BM), as were those of adult females, i. e. ~BM1.0. In both age classes the digesta mass of the foreguts exceeded 75 % of the total digesta mass. Diets of both juvenile and adult O. rufus largely focused on grasses. Juveniles had higher rates of digesta excretion while foraging than adults. In addition, the foregut contents in juveniles occupies proportionally less of the total gut than in adult females. Together, the higher excretion rate and smaller relative foregut of juveniles suggests that they necessarily focus on forage that can be rapidly digested, such as young, green grasses or herbage. Comparison of the skulls of juveniles and adults revealed how this harvest can occur. Relative to BM juveniles had skulls of larger volume than adults. Additionally, during growth the skull lengthens proportionally faster than increasing. By weaning the dimensions of the incisor bite of juveniles neared those of adult females. The area of wear on premolars/molars increased only slowly relative to the development of incisors, further pointing to juveniles selecting more digestible forage than adults. The intermittent availability of such forage, principally young grasses, appears key to the significant recruitment into the O. rufus population in their arid habitat.</p>
Animal personality drives individual dietary specialisation across multiple dimensions in a mammalian herbivore
<p>1. Animal personality influences how individuals perceive and react to different stimuli, such as food quality and predation risk, thereby shaping foraging behaviour. As a consequence, animal personality is predicted to influence the diet and dietary specialisation of individuals within a population, but animal personality and dietary specialisation have yet to be linked.</p> <p>2. Here, we tested whether individual diet and dietary specialisation are a function of animal personality, using an arboreal herbivore, the common brushtail possum, as a model species. We hypothesised that pro-active individuals have more diverse foraging opportunities than reactive individuals. We therefore predicted that pro-active animals (more exploratory, bold and more active) would be less specialised, with a broader and higher-quality diet than their reactive counterparts. We quantified the personality traits and dietary niche using proportional similarity index and specialisation categories of possums (n = 30) in a population flanking native eucalypt woodland and residential gardens in suburban Sydney, Australia.</p> <p>3. We found that personality traits were related to the breadth and quality of the realised diets of individual possums. As predicted, proactive individuals had a broad, high-quality diet with less individual dietary specialisation than reactive individuals. Highly exploratory individuals had a more diverse diet than less exploratory individuals, and bold individuals were more likely than shy individuals to consume plants on the ground.</p> <p>4. Our study demonstrates an important link between animal personality and individual dietary specialisation. The finding that the personality of individuals is associated with different diet choices within the same landscape is fundamentally significant. First, personality as a driver of niche partitioning likely reduces within-species competition and hence could contribute to adaptive capacity. Second, the strength of ecological processes arising from interactions (e.g. predator-prey and plant-herbivore interactions) could differ among individuals according to their personality traits.</p> <p>5. Our findings are also relevant for effectively managing both threatened native, and invasive species. Management strategies will be improved by incorporating knowledge of individual traits and their ecological consequences, plus the ecological context of food- and fear-scapes.</p>
Data from: To eat, or not to eat: A phantom decoy affects information-gathering behavior by a free-ranging mammalian herbivore
<p><span>When foraging, making appropriate food choices is crucial to an animal's fitness. Classic foraging ecology theories assume animals choose food of greatest benefit based on their absolute value across multiple dimensions. Consequently, poorer options are considered irrelevant alternatives that should not influence decision-making among better options. But heuristic studies demonstrate that irrelevant alternatives (termed decoys) can influence decisions of some animals, indicating they use a relative rather than absolute evaluation system. Our aim was to test whether a decoy influenced the decision-making process – i.e. information-gathering and food choice – of a free-ranging mammalian herbivore. We tested swamp wallabies, <em>Wallabia bicolor</em>, comparing their behavior towards, and choice of, two available food options over time in the absence or presence of the decoy. We used a phantom decoy—unavailable option—and ran two trials in different locations and seasons. Binary preferences (decoy absent) for the two available food options differed between trials. Irrespective of this difference, across both trials the presence of the decoy resulted in animals more likely to overtly investigate available food options. But the decoy only shifted food choice, weakly, in one trial. Our results indicate that the decoy influenced the information-gathering behavior during decision-making, providing first evidence that decoys can affect decision-making process of free-ranging mammalian herbivores in an ecologically realistic context. I</span><span>t is premature to say these findings confirm the use of relative evaluation systems. </span><span>Whether the foraging outcome is more strongly affected by other decoys, food dimensions, or ecological contexts, is yet to be determined.</span></p>
Large mammalian herbivores affect arthropod food webs via changes in vegetation characteristics and microclimate
<ol> <li>Large mammalian herbivores are vital components of terrestrial ecosystems, influencing the plants they feed on, but also serving as ecosystem engineers that impact the occurrence and survival of many other organisms. Arthropods are the most abundant and diverse animal group on earth, filling all trophic levels in food webs and facilitating essential ecosystem services. However, the impacts of large herbivores on arthropod communities and the mechanisms via which these impacts are mediated are not fully understood. </li> <li>Here, we experimentally separated the mechanistic pathways whereby large herbivores affect arthropod food webs using a 24-year manipulative multi-site field experiment in the Netherlands. We analyzed the abundance, biomass, and community composition of arthropods in the plant canopy and on the soil surface, both in grazed sites or sites where large herbivores were excluded.</li> <li>We found that the presence of large herbivores resulted in considerable differences in vegetation properties and microclimate which influenced the abundance and biomass of arthropods to varying trophic levels. Large herbivore grazing enhanced the overall abundance and biomass of arthropod herbivores, pollinators, omnivores, and soil-dwelling predators, but reduced that of detritivores, scavengers, parasitoids, and canopy predators. Structural equation models revealed that different trophic groups are affected by grazing via different pathways. Specially, large herbivores facilitated herbivores via increasing plant quality and enhanced ground-dwelling predators via increasing plant diversity. In contrast, plant-dwelling predators were suppressed via decreased plant quantity, and parasitoids were mainly affected by changes in microclimate conditions. </li> <li> <em>Synthesis</em>. Our results show that large mammalian herbivores play a significant role in shaping grassland arthropod food webs and that these impacts were independently mediated by multiple aspects of vegetation properties, i.e., physical structure, plant diversity, standing crop biomass, and leaf nutrient content. Arthropods of different trophic groups responded differently to the large herbivores, and these functional group-specific responses in turn may have strong cascading effects on numerous ecosystem services.</li> </ol>
Data from: Ambient temperature-mediated changes in hepatic gene expression of a mammalian herbivore (Neotoma lepida)
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Data from: Odour information enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar, leading to predictable plant associational effects
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Data from: To eat, or not to eat: A phantom decoy affects information-gathering behavior by a free-ranging mammalian herbivore
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The burden of size and growth for the juveniles of large mammalian herbivores: structural and functional constraints in the feeding biology of juveniles relative to adults in red kangaroos, Osphranter rufus
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Large mammalian herbivores affect arthropod food webs via changes in vegetation characteristics and microclimate
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Animal personality drives individual dietary specialisation across multiple dimensions in a mammalian herbivore
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Chronic browsing by an introduced mammalian herbivore in a tropical island alters species composition and functional traits of forest understory plant communities
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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.
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DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
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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.
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