Population Dynamics Of Large Mammals Research Articles

Large mammal behavioral defenses induced by the cues of human predation.

Large mammals respond to human hunting via proactive and reactive responses, which can induce subsequent nonconsumptive effects (NCEs). Thus, there is evidence that large mammals exhibit considerable behavioral plasticity in response to human hunting risk. Currently, however, it is unclear which cues of human hunting large mammals may be responding to. We conducted a literature review to quantify the large mammal behavioral responses induced by the cues of human hunting. We detected 106 studies published between 1978 and 2022 of which 34 (32%) included at least one measure of cue, typically visual (n = 26 of 106, 25%) or auditory (n = 11 of 106, 10%). Space use (n = 37 of 106, 35%) and flight (n = 31 of 106, 29%) were the most common behavioral responses studied. Among the 34 studies that assessed at least one cue, six (18%) measured large mammal behavioral responses in relation to proxies of human hunting (e.g. hunting site or season). Only 14% (n = 15 of 106) of the studies quantified an NCE associated with an animal's response to human hunting. Moreover, the association between cues measured and antipredator behaviors is unclear due to a consistent lack of controls. Thus, while human hunting can shape animal populations via consumptive effects, the cues triggering these responses are poorly understood. There hence remains a need to link cues, responses, NCEs, and the dynamics of large mammal populations. Human activities can then be adjusted accordingly to prevent both overexploitation and unintended NCEs in animal populations.

Stable isotopes reveal patterns of diet and mobility in the last Neandertals and first modern humans in Europe

Correlating cultural, technological and ecological aspects of both Upper Pleistocene modern humans (UPMHs) and Neandertals provides a useful approach for achieving robust predictions about what makes us human. Here we present ecological information for a period of special relevance in human evolution, the time of replacement of Neandertals by modern humans during the Late Pleistocene in Europe. Using the stable isotopic approach, we shed light on aspects of diet and mobility of the late Neandertals and UPMHs from the cave sites of the Troisième caverne of Goyet and Spy in Belgium. We demonstrate that their diet was essentially similar, relying on the same terrestrial herbivores, whereas mobility strategies indicate considerable differences between Neandertal groups, as well as in comparison to UPMHs. Our results indicate that UPMHs exploited their environment to a greater extent than Neandertals and support the hypothesis that UPMHs had a substantial impact not only on the population dynamics of large mammals but also on the whole structure of the ecosystem since their initial arrival in Europe.

The Impact of West African Trade on the Distribution of Chimpanzee and Elephant Populations (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, 19th–20th Century)

This article elaborates a relational historical geography of human, chimpanzee and elephant populations, working mainly from precolonial and early colonial (nineteenth and twentieth century) narratives by travellers to regions now corresponding to parts of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. It then compares a global ‘West African trade’ model of human and animal population’s spatial distribution with elements of an ‘East African settlement colony’ model drawn from other historical research. This perspective balances mainstream evolutionary approaches to animal biogeography with the human history, ecology and the geopolitics of their habitats. Taking such historical processes into account helps to unravel contrastive spatial and temporal dynamics of large mammal populations and to raise new questions about the anthropogenic causes of present-day population distributions.

Hunting Bambi—evaluating the basis for selective harvesting of juveniles

Human harvesting is often a major mortality factor and, hence, an important proximate factor driving the population dynamics of large mammals. Several selective harvesting regimes focus on removing animals with low reproductive value, such as antlered harvests in North America and juvenile harvesting in many European countries. Despite its widespread use and assumed impact, the scientific basis of juvenile harvesting is scattered in the literature and not empirically well-documented. We give the first overview of demographic, evolutionary and practical management arguments for selective harvesting of juve- niles. Furthermore, we empirically test two demographic arguments based on harvest statistics of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in seven European countries. P1: Harvesting juveniles has little influence on harvest growth compared with harvesting adult females due to the lower reproductive value of juveniles than adult females; P2: Harvesting of juveniles dampens variance in harvest due to lower and more variable natural survival rates of juveniles compared with adults. We found that harvesting juveniles has little effect on harvest growth rate, while harvesting adult females has a significant negative effect (consistent with P1), but that increasing the proportion of juveniles in the harvest did not decrease the variability in harvest between years (P2 not supported). Based on our empirical findings and overview of arguments, we discuss how the merits of juvenile harvesting may vary over time as populations move from a low density to a very high density state.

Carnivores, Even-Toed Ungulates, Lagomorphs and Large Rodents in Polish National Parks

Using questionnaires completed by 284 national park field workers I evaluated the occurrence and population dynamics of large mammals from 1996 to 2005 in all 23 Polish national parks. A total of 29 species were found: 15 carnivores, 8 even-toed ungulates, 2 lagomorphs and 4 large rodents. The greatest population growth was seen in the beaver Castor fiber, the red fox Vulpes vulpes, and three non-native species (American mink Mustela vison, racccoon Procyon lotor and fallow deer Dama dama) while the greatest population decline occurred in two other non-native species (muskrat Ondatra zibethicus and mouflon Ovis orientalis musimon) and to a lesser degree in the native brown hare Lepus europaeus. The richest and most natural large mammalian fauna occurred in the Carpathian parks (Bieszczady NP, Magura NP, Tatra NP and Pieniny NP) as well as in the eastern part of the country (especially Białowieża NP and Biebrza NP), and the poorest was found in the Sudeten parks and in the west. There was a statistically significant correlation between mammal species richness and park size, longitude as well as the degree of disturbance in and around the park (negative correlation).

Dystocia in free-ranging sika deer Cervus nippon under food limitation

Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0809, JapanIn understanding the mechanism of population dynamicsof large mammals, it is essential to clarify the mortalityfactor. For ruminants, birth size is a major factor of neo-natal survival because smaller neonates are more suscep-tible to exposure (Haughey 1980; English and Mullery1992) and vulnerable to predators (Singer et al. 1997).Birth size is commonly related to maternal body sizewithin and across species (Clutton-Brock 1991). Thefetus/neonate-mother proportion may be a consequenceof developmental or morphological constraints (MaynardSmith et al. 1985). For example, it is well known thatfetomaternal disproportion (FMD) causes dystocia, oftenresulting in high fetal/neonatal mortality in domesticruminants (cattle, Johnson et al. 1988; Schwabe and Hall1989; Noakes 1997; West 1997: sheep, McSporran andFielden 1979; Thomas 1990; Dwyer 2003). However,dystocia in wild ruminants has been scarcely reported indetail. This is partly because dystocia may rarely occuras a consequence of natural selection toward optimalbirth size (mass) for mother and offspring (Clutton-Brock 1991), and/or dystocia may be simply difficult todetect in the field. In fact, neonatal mortality in prong-horn Antilocapra americana was caused partly bydystocia (1.8%) but mostly by trauma (61.8%) due topredation (Dunbar et al. 1999). Also, dystocia causedmortality of adult females (<1%) in Swedish roe deerCapreolus capreolus, but the major causes were trau-matic injuries, starvation and pneumonia (Aguirre et al.1999). However, in animals whose growth and maturesize are restricted by environmental factors such as foodlimitation (e.g. Fowler 1987), FMD may occur fre-quently and be a cause of mortality. In this paper, weexamine the occurrence of dystocia in sika deer Cervusnippon under severe food limitation and searched theincidence of FMD.

A Different Approach to Modeling

Adaptive Herbivore Ecology . From Resources to Populations in Variable Environments. Norman Owen-Smith. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002. 390 pp. $90, £65. ISBN 0-521-81061-2. Building on his field studies of African herbivores, Owen-Smith develops a new modeling approach for studying the population dynamics of large mammals.

Sex‐ and age‐dependent effects of population density on life history traits of red deer Cervus elaphus in a temperate forest

We studied both the short‐ and long‐term effects of density on three life history traits of a red deer population inhabiting a temperate forest. Both male and female body mass increased when population density decreased, but male mass changed to a greater extent than female mass. Density did not influence female survival irrespective of age, however, survival of males was lower at high density for all age classes except the prime‐age class. Pregnancy rates of primiparous females increased markedly with decreasing density, whereas those of adult hinds were fairly constant and unrelated to density. For both sexes, of the studied life history traits we detected a long‐term effect of density at birth (cohort effect) only on body mass. These results suggest that density influences life history traits in the same way as factors of environmental variation such as climate. In this population we did not find any evidence for an influence of climatic conditions on life history traits of red deer. Both mild winters and the absence of summer droughts during the study period could account for such an absence of climatic effects. We interpreted our results to show that 1) as expected for a highly dimorphic and polygynous species such as red deer, male traits showed consistently higher sensitivity to variation in density than female traits, illustrating possible costs caused by sexual selection in males, 2) the female‐based Eberhardt's model according to which increasing density should sequentially affect juvenile survival, reproductive rates of primiparous females, reproductive rates of adults and lastly adult survival was only partly supported because we found that pregnancy rate of primiparous females rather than juvenile survival was the most sensitive trait to variation in density. We propose that including variation in male traits would improve the accuracy of models of population dynamics of large mammals, at least for highly dimorphic species. Because the population we studied was not fenced, we only measured apparent survival. We discuss how dispersal, in relation to the phenotypic quality of young deer, might be a potential regulating factor under such conditions.

Body mass and winter mortality in red deer calves: disentangling sex and climate effects

Understanding population dynamics of large mammals requires studies of variation in the age and sex–specific demographic parameters over time and the factors causing this variation. Here, we have focused on the variation in body mass of 8‐10–month old red deer calves, in relation to climate and sex over a 20‐yr period (1977–1997). We investigated the relationship between body mass and over–winter mortality during 1985 and 1986 and thereby, the phenotypic selection on body mass. We found a high variability from year to year in calf body mass. Males were consistently heavier than females. No interaction between sex and year was detected. The body mass of individuals from the same cohort shot during the annual hunting season and snow depth in January each explained ca 20% of the variability in calf body mass. Body mass loss during winter did not differ between sexes, but increased with body mass and varied from year to year. The probability of surviving was strongly related to body mass in each sex. For a given body mass relative to the sex–specific mean, males had a lower probability of survival than females. Hence, males had to be 1 kg larger than their mean in order to achieve the same survival as average‐sized females. Our results suggested a directional phenotypic selection on body mass that led to an increasing body mass dimorphism in calves. The strength of this selection and the sex difference in the shape of the selection curve may depend, however, on the severity of winter and on sexual dimorphism in body mass at the beginning of winter.

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations.

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations.

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations. Charles W. Fowler , Tim D. Smith

Previous articleNext article No AccessNew Biological BooksDynamics of Large Mammal Populations. Charles W. Fowler , Tim D. Smith M. B. FentonM. B. Fenton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 57, Number 4Dec., 1982 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/412996 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1981 Stony Brook Foundation, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations, Edited by C. W. Fowler &amp; T. D. Smith. Wiley–Interscience, New York–Chichester–Brisbane–Toronto–Singapore: xviii + 477 pp., figs &amp; tables, 24 × 16.5 × 2.75 cm, £31.50, 1981.

Dynamics of Large Mammal Populations, Edited by C. W. Fowler &amp; T. D. Smith. Wiley–Interscience, New York–Chichester–Brisbane–Toronto–Singapore: xviii + 477 pp., figs &amp; tables, 24 × 16.5 × 2.75 cm, £31.50, 1981. - Volume 9 Issue 2