Predation risk can modify the foraging behaviour of frugivorous carnivores: Implications of rewilding apex predators for plant–animal mutualisms

Abstract

1. Apex predators play key roles in food webs and their recovery can trigger trophic cascades in some ecosystems. Intra-guild competition can reduce the abundances of smaller predators and perceived predation risk can alter their foraging behaviour thereby limiting seed dispersal by frugivorous carnivores. However, little is known about how plant-frugivore mutualisms could be disturbed in the presence of larger predators.2. We evaluated the top-down effect of the regional superpredator, the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus, on the number of visits and fruits consumed by medium-sized frugivorous carnivores, as well as the foraging behaviour of identified individuals, by examining the consumption likelihood and the foraging time.3. We carried out a field experiment in which we placed Iberian pear Pyrus bourgaeana fruits beneath fruiting trees and monitored pear removal by frugivorous carnivores, both inside and outside lynx ranges. Using camera traps, we recorded the presence of the red fox Vulpes vulpes, the Eurasian badger Meles meles and the stone marten Martes foina, as well as the number of fruits they consumed and their time spent foraging. 4. Red fox was the most frequent fruit consumer carnivore. We found there were fewer visits and less fruit consumed by foxes inside lynx ranges, but lynx presence did not seem to affect badgers. We did not observe any stone marten visits inside lynx territories. The foraging behaviour of red foxes was also altered inside lynx ranges whereby foxes were less efficient, consuming less fruit per unit of time and having shorter visits. Local availability of fruit resources, forest | 1025

Top-down and bottom-up effects modulate species co-existence in a context of top predator restoration

“…Fruit seeds are found in up to 94% scats of stone marten, contrasting with the more specialised genet diet on micromammals 32,54 . Therefore, a suppressed abundance of key frugivorous carnivores as martens could trigger cascading effects for plants by limiting seed dispersal inside lynx territories [55][56][57] . However, the exclusion of stone martens from rodent-rich patches inhabited by lynx, could impact body condition and fitness 43 and shift diet composition of marten population towards higher consumption of fruits 58 , triggering a two-told effect on the ecosystem functioning by limiting seed dispersal inside lynx territories but boosting it outside.…”

Occupancy data improves parameter precision in spatial capture–recapture models

“…Its ecological adaptability deems it present in a wide variety of habitats (Abramov et al, 2016 ; Virgós et al, 2012 ). It has a remarkable ecological role in the dispersal of multiple fleshy fruited plants (such as strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo ) in Mediterranean ecosystems (Burgos et al, 2022 ; Herrera, 1989 ; Virgós et al, 2010 ), where stone martens play a potential role as ecosystem engineer. Their ecological importance coupled with its drastic decline where the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus has settled after its reintroduction in the Iberian Peninsula (Jiménez, Nuñez‐Arjona, et al, 2019 ), justify the need to accurately quantify stone martens' population sizes, as a key step toward a deeper understanding of the seed dispersal processes in which it is involved, and the consequences of intraguild relationships in those processes.…”

“…Its ecological adaptability deems it present in a wide variety of habitats (Abramov et al, 2016;Virgós et al, 2012). It has a remarkable ecological role in the dispersal of multiple fleshy fruited plants (such as strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo) in Mediterranean ecosystems (Burgos et al, 2022;Herrera, 1989;Virgós et al, 2010),…”

A conceptual framework linking pollen limitation and seed dispersal effectiveness

“…Navarro 1998;Moore et al 2022), competition and predation pressure of the plant and dispersers (e.g. Houle et al 2010;Burgos et al 2022), the abundance of alternative feeding resources to dispersers (e.g. Correa & Winemiller 2014) (Fig.…”