Yellowstone Cougars: Ecology Before And During Wolf Restoration

Ruth, Toni K.; Buotte, Polly C.; Hornocker, Maurice G.; Mech, L. David

doi:10.5876/9781607328292

Cited by 24 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…Near equal support for these models with respect to roughness (DQIC = 1.9; Appendix S6) indicates that we cannot rule out an influence of female cougars. We expected such an influence because adult females were more than three times as abundant as resident adult males, females with kittens had a higher kill rate than males (Ruth et al 2019), and at least one female in our sample had kittens. On the other hand, the tendency for females, which are smaller than males, to focus their predation on elk calves (Murphy et al 1998;Ruth et al 2019), together with the possibility that few radio-collared elk had a calf at heel due to a scarcity of calves at the time (Proffitt et al 2014), might have diminished the pressure of female cougars on elk habitat selection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We tested the extent that elk ( Cervus elaphus ) selected for vacant hunting domains to avoid predation from wolves ( Canis lupus ) and cougars ( Puma concolor ) in northern Yellowstone National Park (YNP). Wolves are cursorial predators that kill mainly in flat, open areas at morning and dusk (Kauffman et al ; Kohl et al ), whereas cougars are spot‐and‐stalk/ambush predators that kill mainly in topographically rugged, forested areas at night (Murphy et al ; Ruth et al ). We predicted that elk selected for flat, open areas at night (night‐flat and night‐open domains), and for rugged, forest areas during daylight (day‐rugged and day‐forest domains).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We predicted that elk selected for flat, open areas at night (night‐flat and night‐open domains), and for rugged, forest areas during daylight (day‐rugged and day‐forest domains). We studied elk habitat selection in winter when wolves and cougars were the only major elk predators inside YNP (Evans et al ; Barber‐Meyer et al, ), and during a period (2001–2004) when densities of both predators were highest (Cubaynes et al ; Ruth et al ). Our results shed new light on how multiple predators can drive prey habitat selection in a predator‐rich environment, and how prey can minimize these multiple threats simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do prey select for vacant hunting domains to minimize a multi‐predator threat?

et al. 2019

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Many ecosystems contain sympatric predator species that hunt in different places and times. We tested whether this provides vacant hunting domains, places and times where and when predators are least active, that prey use to minimize threats from multiple predators simultaneously. We measured how northern Yellowstone elk (Cervus elaphus) responded to wolves (Canis lupus) and cougars (Puma concolor), and found that elk selected for areas outside the high‐risk domains of both predators consistent with the vacant domain hypothesis. This enabled elk to avoid one predator without necessarily increasing its exposure to the other. Our results demonstrate how the diel cycle can serve as a key axis of the predator hunting domain that prey exploit to manage predation risk from multiple sources. We argue that a multi‐predator, spatiotemporal framework is vital to understand the causes and consequences of prey spatial response to predation risk in environments with more than one predator.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do prey select for vacant hunting domains to minimize a multi‐predator threat?

et al. 2019

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“…Other large carnivores in the study area included cougar ( Puma concolor ), brown bear ( Ursus arctos ), and black bear ( Ursus americanus ). All four predators preyed on elk, with bears killing mainly calves 42 , and cougars and wolves killing calves and adults 43,44 . Elk that moved beyond the study area into adjacent areas of Montana were also subject to predation from human hunters regulated by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks 45 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade

Brice

Larsen

MacNulty

2020

Preprint

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1 Understanding how wildland ecosystems respond to the loss and recovery of large 2 predators is vital to decipher the forces that structure food webs and to guide the practice 3 of ecosystem conservation, restoration, and rewilding. This is a major scientific challenge, 4 however, because these large-scale, uncontrolled systems are difficult (or impossible) to 5 sample properly. We show how a tradition of nonrandom sampling has confounded this 6 understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [wolf 7 (Canis lupus)] recovery is often associated with a trophic cascade involving changes in 8 herbivore [elk (Cervus canadensis)] behavior and density that promote plant regeneration. 9 Long-term data indicate that a customary practice of sampling only the tallest young plants 10 overestimated regeneration of aspen (Populus tremuloides) by a factor of 3-44 compared to 11 random sampling. Our results demonstrate how seemingly minor departures from 12 principled sampling can generate substantial misunderstandings about the strength of 13

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“…Because competition among carnivores often is driven by diet and body size (Donadio and Buskirk 2006), we assumed that the two most dominant carnivores remaining in NEPL were the dhole and the clouded leopard, which are similar in body size and consume the largest prey (Table 1). Large canids, including dholes and wolves (Canis lupus), live in large packs (Kamler et al 2015) and behaviourally dominate large felids, such as leopards (Panthera pardus) and pumas (Puma concolor), during encounters due to their numerical advantage (Venkataraman 1995;Ruth et al 2019). Therefore, dholes likely behaviourally dominate clouded leopards as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal partitioning by felids, dholes and their potential prey in northern Laos

2020

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Temporal partitioning can allow sympatric carnivores to coexist, especially if overlap of other resources is high. Using camera trap data from 2013 to 2017, we investigated the temporal partitioning of a community of wild felids and a canid in Nam Et–Phou Louey National Protected Area, Laos, to determine the extent to which temporal avoidance might be facilitating coexistence of similarly sized carnivores. We also investigated temporal overlap of these carnivore species and their presumed main prey, to determine if their activity is likely most influenced by their prey or potential competitors. The dhole (Cuon alpinus) and clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), the two largest carnivores, had low temporal overlap, and activity appeared to be synchronized with the main prey for dhole, but not clouded leopard. Thus, it was possible that clouded leopard used temporal partitioning to coexist with dhole. The temporal overlap of Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) was high with clouded leopard and moderate with dhole, and overall appeared to be influenced most by its presumed prey species, rather than by its potential competitors. The two small felids had the least temporal overlap between any species, as the marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) was primarily diurnal whereas the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) was primarily nocturnal. Given that the two small felids reportedly have similar diets consisting of small rodents and birds, their temporal partitioning is likely to help facilitate their coexistence. For carnivore species in northern Laos that are most similar in body size and diet, temporal partitioning is likely to be an important mechanism of coexistence. Otherwise, temporal patterns appear to be synchronized with their main prey.

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Yellowstone Cougars: Ecology Before And During Wolf Restoration

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Do prey select for vacant hunting domains to minimize a multi‐predator threat?

Do prey select for vacant hunting domains to minimize a multi‐predator threat?

Sampling bias exaggerates a textbook example of a trophic cascade

Temporal partitioning by felids, dholes and their potential prey in northern Laos

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