Large carnivores are keystone species and their foraging strategies may be a determinant in the functioning of communities and ecosystems. The plastic foraging behaviour of carnivores is likely to be influenced by a suite of factors. Here, we studied spotted hyaena diet during two contrasting periods in terms of lion population abundance to investigate the changes in spotted hyaena foraging strategies in response to changes in expected intraguild interactions in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. The analysis of hyaena scats and feeding sites of GPS-tracked individuals revealed that during the period of high lion abundance, spotted hyaena consumption and preference for very large prey (elephant and giraffe) increased, while that of large (buffalo) and medium-sized prey (zebra, wildebeest and kudu) decreased, despite an increase in spotted hyaena foraging group size. These results suggest a shift from active predation to scavenging as the potential risk of kleptoparasitism by lions and intraguild competition increased. However, the likely increase of lion predation on very large prey due to the increased proportion of adult males in the lion population could also result in intraguild facilitation by providing spotted hyaenas with additional food sources and thus promote coexistence between these species. Our findings suggest that changes in the numerical abundance of competing species can affect their diet and prey preference, which could ultimately increase the intensity of competition (and facilitation) between carnivores and may thus impact prey populations and possibly ecosystem functioning.

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In the Congo Forest Basin, hunting provides a major source of protein for rural household consumption. In the context of increasing urbanisation, an understanding of bushmeat consumption in urban settings is needed to both address food security issues and design biodiversity conservation strategies. This paper provides insights into bushmeat con- sumption patterns in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, through an analysis of household expenditures and market prices. A survey of approximately 4,000 households combined with 3 years (2005-2008) of mar- ket price monitoring was used to estimate the consumption of bushmeat and alternative proteins. The results showed the presence of a diverse range of animal proteins on the Ban- gui market, including meat from domestic and wild animals. The taxonomic composition of the bushmeat mainly included common, sed- entary wildlife species that are highly resilient to hunting pressure, while protected species were rarelyobserved. The householdconsump- tion survey showed that 54% of daily meals contained beef, 35% contained fish and 19% contained bushmeat. Fish and bushmeat con- sumption decreased in the rainy season, and caterpillar consumption increased. Smoked proteins (bushmeat, fish), were cheaper than all fresh meat except for caterpillars. The con- sumption of proteins and bushmeat increased with wealth; fresh proteins were consumed more by wealthy consumers, while smoked bushmeat was consumed by the poorest. Total consumption of protein and bushmeat was highest in rich households, but the rela- tive proportion of bushmeat in the total pro- tein intake was highest for poor households. Overall, the results confirm the importance of bushmeat in the diet of urban consumers, especially in poor households. However, the patterns of consumption suggest that bush- meat is less popular than alternatives, which may potentially limit an increase in bushmeat consumption, particularly if cheaper, alterna- tive meat can be made available.

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To cite this version:Nicolas Lieury, Nolwenn Drouet-Hoguet, Sandrine Ruette, Sébastien Devillard, Michel Albaret, et al.. Rural populations of the red fox Vulpes vulpes show little evidence of reproductive senescence. Please cite this article as: Lieury, Nicolas, Drouet-Hoguet, Nolwenn, Ruette, Sandrine, Devillard, Sébastien, Albaret, Michel, Millon, Alexandre, Rural populations of the red fox Vulpes vulpes show little evidence of reproductive senescence.Mammalian Biology http://dx.Abstract: 222 Word count: 5561 Figures: 2 Tables: 3Reproductive senescence in the red fox AbstractThe ageing theory predicts fast and early senescence for fast-living species. We investigated whether the pattern of senescence of a medium-sized, fast-living and heavily-culled mammal, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), fits this theoretical prediction. We used cross-sectional data from a large-scale culling experiment of red fox conducted over six years in five study sites located in two regions of France to explore the age-related variation in reproductive output. We used both placental scars and embryos counts from 755 vixens' carcasses aged by the tooth cementum method (age range: 1-10), as proxies for litter size. Mean litter size per vixen was 4.7 ± 1.4. Results from Generalized Additive Mixed Models revealed a significant variation of litter size with age. Litter size peaked at age 4 with 5.0 ± 0.2 placental scars and decreased thereafter by 0.5 cubs per year. Interestingly, we found a different age-specific variation when counting embryos which reached a plateau at age 5-6 (5.5 ± 0.2) and decreased slower than placental scars across older ages, pointing out embryo resorption as a potential physiological mechanism of reproductive senescence in the red fox. Contrary to our expectation, reproductive senescence is weak, occurs late in life and takes place at an age reached by less than 11.7% of the population such that very few females exhibit senescence in these heavily culled populations.