Abstract
There is much interest in understanding how anthropogenic food resources subsidise carnivore populations. Carcasses of hunter-shot ungulates are a potentially substantial food source for mammalian carnivores. The sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) is a large (≥150 kg) exotic ungulate that can be hunted throughout the year in south-eastern Australia, and hunters are not required to remove or bury carcasses. We investigated how wild dogs/dingoes and their hybrids (Canis lupus familiaris/dingo), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cats (Felis catus) utilised sambar deer carcasses during the peak hunting seasons (i.e. winter and spring). We placed carcasses at 1-km intervals along each of six transects that extended 4-km into forest from farm boundaries. Visits to carcasses were monitored using camera traps, and the rate of change in edible biomass estimated at ∼14-day intervals. Wild dogs and foxes fed on 70% and 60% of 30 carcasses, respectively, but feral cats seldom (10%) fed on carcasses. Spatial and temporal patterns of visits to carcasses were consistent with the hypothesis that foxes avoid wild dogs. Wild dog activity peaked at carcasses 2 and 3 km from farms, a likely legacy of wild dog control, whereas fox activity peaked at carcasses 0 and 4 km from farms. Wild dog activity peaked at dawn and dusk, whereas nearly all fox activity occurred after dusk and before dawn. Neither wild dogs nor foxes remained at carcasses for long periods and the amount of feeding activity by either species was a less important predictor of the loss of edible biomass than season. Reasons for the low impacts of wild dogs and foxes on sambar deer carcass biomass include the spatially and temporally unpredictable distribution of carcasses in the landscape, the rapid rate of edible biomass decomposition in warm periods, low wild dog densities and the availability of alternative food resources.
Highlights
Mammalian carnivores can have important ecological, economic and social impacts
Feral cats seldom fed on sambar deer carcasses, a result consistent with the belief that this species is an obligate predator in Australia
Spatial and temporal patterns of visits to sambar deer carcasses by mammalian carnivores in south-eastern Australia were consistent with the hypothesis that foxes avoid wild dogs
Summary
Mammalian carnivores can have important ecological, economic and social impacts. Key ecological impacts of carnivores include the regulation of prey species and the suppression of smaller carnivores (‘mesopredators’), both of which may influence ecosystem structure and function [124]. Where carnivores and humans overlap, carnivores may kill humans and humans may kill carnivores [4,5]. Another impact of carnivores on humans is predation on livestock reducing the economic viability of farming enterprises [6]. The actual and perceived impacts of carnivores on human activities can have undesirable social consequences [7]. There is much interest in understanding how carnivores utilise food resources [8], and those food resources that are provided directly or indirectly by people (i.e. anthropogenic [9212])
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