Determinants of Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) diet in a seasonally changing reservoir

Abstract

Otter diet in reservoirs is known to experience seasonal changes. We selected a reservoir with a large population of exclusively wintering great cormorants and seasonal changes in stored water volume to test the relative influence of abiotic and biotic factors on otter foraging ecology. DNA metabarcoding of otter spraints revealed a dietary change from autumn to winter. Otters had a diet dominated by the exotic goldfish in autumn, but predated intensively on the native northern straight-mouth nase in winter. This change was likely caused by predation of cormorants on goldfish and to fish biology. Secondly, macroscopic analysis of spraints revealed that otters shifted from a diet dominated by fish (in terms of biomass) to a diet dominated by red swamp crayfish during spring–summer, when the latter became overabundant. As revealed by modelling, this second shift was most likely influenced by the sudden increase in stored water volume in spring, but also by the cumulative effect of cormorant predation on fish during autumn–winter. Macroscopic analyses of otter spraints collected in a second reservoir with no cormorants revealed a lack of seasonality. Hence, the combined influence of both biotic and abiotic factors explained otter diet seasonality in a lentic-water novel ecosystem.