Can prey behaviour induce spatially synchronic aggregation of solitary predators?

Penteriani, Vincenzo; Melián, Carlos J.; Otálora, Fermı́n; Ferrer, Miguel

doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2006.14547.x

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…This implies that it may be unwise to monitor only the breeding part of a population because of the potential delay in detecting a decline, underestimating the extent of a decline and overestimating recovery levels (Kokko & Sutherland, 1998;Kenward et al, 2000). More generally, Penteriani et al (2005bPenteriani et al ( , 2006a found that: (1) the survival of dispersing individuals (the numbers of which depend on the productivity in breeding areas) is highly dependent on the number of available settlement areas and their resources; (2) environmental stochasticity has a greater influence on the entire population (breeders+floaters) when variations in environmental conditions occur in a synchronous way (i.e. simultaneously in both the settlement and breeding areas).…”

Section: How the Fate Of Floaters Can Affect The Stability Of Breedinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floater strategies and dynamics in birds, and their importance in conservation biology: towards an understanding of nonbreeders in avian populations

Penteriani

Ferrer

Delgado

2011

Animal Conservation

155

159

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Over the past 40 years, the study of animal populations has shifted from a relatively simple science that assumed the most crucial regulating mechanisms were the intrinsic properties of breeders, to a more complex and refined discipline that reflects a greater understanding of populations and their dynamics. Part of this shift has been the explicit recognition of the importance of a previously overlooked nonbreeding component of animal populations, the so-called floaters.Here we review and discuss the various effects that pools of floaters can have on the structure, dynamics and persistence of bird populations. Under some circumstances floaters can be both active intruders that can alter the breeding performance and behavioural traits of territory owners, as well as secretive presences reducing the extinction risk of populations. Floaters are crucial elements in conservation biology, and knowledge of their behaviour and dynamics in avian communities can be a key factor in the success of conservation strategies. Firstly, larger pools of floaters are associated with more stable breeding populations, even in cases where breeding output could be impacted through interference by floaters. Secondly, the effects of habitat loss and mortality rates are frequently ignored in areas where floaters settle, and consequently conservation measures tend to overlook these sites, potentially leading to increased risks of mortality among floaters. Thirdly, because an increase in the proportion of juveniles in the breeding component of a population may be because of increased pre-adult and/or adult mortality rates, a change in the age of breeders has the potential to function as a warning of an imminent decline in breeding populations. Most population studies have only considered the breeding components of animal populations, so it is time now to focus attention on the floater component, wherein the solution to many conservation issues may be found.

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Section: How the Fate Of Floaters Can Affect The Stability Of Breedinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floater strategies and dynamics in birds, and their importance in conservation biology: towards an understanding of nonbreeders in avian populations

Penteriani

Ferrer

Delgado

2011

Animal Conservation

155

159

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“…The ease of rabbit capture, as suggested by the hunting behaviour of tagged owls, could be also supported by the activity rhythms and habitat use of rabbits in Mediterranean Spain (Moreno et al 1996, Penteriani et al 2006a, where the number of diurnal and more visible predators is higher than nocturnal ones. As a consequence, the risk of predation is higher during daylight hours and rabbits (Villafuerte 1994, Moreno et al 1996: (1) prefer to feed close to cover during the day, whereas use open habitat at night, becoming highly visible and easy to pursue prey for eagle owls, and (2) are more active at night than during the day, increasing their rate of owl encounters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Owls and rabbits: predation against substandard individuals of an easy prey

Penteriani

Delgado²,

Bartolommei³

et al. 2008

J Avian Biology

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The interactions among the multiple factors regulating predator-prey relationships make predation a more complex process than previously thought. The degree to which substandard individuals are captured disproportionately seems to be better a function of the difficulty of prey capture than of the hunting techniques (coursing vs. ambushing predators). That is, when the capture and killing of a prey species is easy, substandard individuals will be predated in proportion to their occurrence in the prey population. In the present study, we made use of eagle owls Bubo bubo and their main prey, the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus: (a) the brightness of the white tails of rabbits seems to be correlated with the physical condition of individuals, (b) by using the tails of predated rabbits as an index of individual condition, we found that eagle owls seem to prefer substandard individuals (characterized by duller tails), and (c) by using information from continuous radiotracking of 14 individuals, we suggest that the difficulty of rabbit capture could be low. Although the relative benefits of preying on substandard individuals should considerably decrease when a predator is attacking an easy prey, we hypothesise that the eagle owl preference for substandard individuals could be due to the easy detection of poor individuals by a visual cue, the brightness of the rabbit tail. Several elements allow us to believe that this form of visual communication between a prey and one of its main predators could be more widespread than previously thought. In fact: (a) visual signalling plays a relevant role in intraspecific communication in eagle owls and, consequently, visual signals could also play a role in interspecific interactions, and (b) empirical studies showed that signals may inform the predator that it has been perceived, or that the prey is in a sufficiently healthy state to elude the predator.

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“…Previous work has illustrated how the survival of the reproductive portions of a population is strongly dependent on the dynamics of floaters, on the number of available settlement areas (i.e., temporary settling zones used by juveniles during natal dispersal) and on the type of fluctuations between the floating and breeding portions of a population (Penteriani et al 2005a). In addition, the availability of the main prey types influences dispersal movements among the different settlement areas (Penteriani et al 2006a), and an increase in the mortality rate within settlement areas can dramatically affect the stability and persistence of breeders (Penteriani et al 2005b). Finally, the patterns and dynamics that are observed in the breeding sectors of a population may have their origin in the patterns and dynamics that occur in the settlement areas during dispersal (Ferrer and Penteriani 2008, Penteriani et al 2006b).…”

Section: Pensamientos Sobre La Dispersió N Natalmentioning

confidence: 99%