Effects of food supplementation on home‐range size, reproductive success, productivity and recruitment in a small population of Iberian lynx

Abstract

In a conservation context, food supplementation is a management tool used to reverse the decline of food-limited populations by means of positive changes in behaviour and fitness that may be reflected in population parameters. The critically endangered Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus has suffered a dramatic decline primarily because of the severe drop of its main prey, the European wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus. To reverse this situation, a food supplementation programme has been implemented in Do˜nana, south-west Spain, since 2002. In this study, we assess the utility of providing artificial food to reduce home-range (HR) size, and to increase productivity, survival and recruitment in a scenario of low lynx density, as compared with reference data from the same population in the absence of extra food. Food supplementation produced a significant contraction of core areas, but not of complete lynx HRs. We did not detect any significant change in productivity or dispersal rates, but supplementation could have helped transient adult lynx to settle down. The positive effects of food supplementation may have been partly countered by factors such as inbreeding, Allee effects and disease outbreaks, whose effects may have been exacerbated in this small lynx population. Food supplementation, however, proved useful to retain individuals, to keep range sizes within their normal range of values, thus maintaining spatial organization, and to allow lynx reproduction and kitten survival in areas with very low prey density. Therefore, we recommend keeping an extensive and intensive supplementary feeding programme until the density of wild rabbits will enable the viability of this endangered lynx population.

How Predictability of Feeding Patches Affects Home Range and Foraging Habitat Selection in Avian Social Scavengers?

“…Behaviour has an important affect on the viability of a population since the strategies chosen by individuals influence demographic parameters such as dispersal, survival and reproduction [1]. To increase population viability of threatened species, wildlife managers often use food resource management through the use of supplementary feeding [2], [3] particularly in the case of raptor conservation programs [4], [5], [6]. For the conservation of obligate scavengers like vultures, resources are usually managed through the use of feeding stations, where carcasses are intentionally left for vultures to provide them with food [7].…”

Competitive Asymmetries in the Use of Supplementary Food by the Endangered Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus)

“…To a lesser extent, food supplementation has been employed for a number of applied purposes, including prevention of crop damage by wildlife [5], retention of translocated animals [6], or conservation of endangered populations [7], [8]. In a conservation context, supplementation is often targeted at specific sectors of a target population (i.e.…”

Feline leukaemia virus outbreak in the endangered Iberian lynx and the role of feeding stations: a cautionary tale

“…Supplementary feeding has proven to be useful in retaining Iberian lynx in areas with extreme food scarcity where otherwise they would be absent (L´opez-Bao, Rodr´ıguez & Palomares, 2008L´opez-Bao et al, 2010). Therefore, misunderstanding the role of FS in the transmission of the FeLV might lead to management recommendations regarding the use of FS, with important conservation repercussions.…”