Intraspecific interference influences the use of prey hotspots

Resource clumping (prey hotspots) and intraspecific competition may interact to influence predator foraging behaviour. Optimal foraging theory suggests that predators should concentrate most of their foraging activity on prey hotspots, but this prediction has received limited empirical support. On t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oikos 2011-10, Vol.120 (10), p.1489-1496
Main Authors: López-Bao, José V., Palomares, Francisco, Rodríguez, Alejandro, Ferreras, Pablo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal feeding behavior
Animal populations
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Breeding
Coexistence
Dyadic relations
Ecology
Female animals
Food security
Food supply
Foraging
Foraging behavior
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Lynx
Predation
Predators
Rabbits
Wildcats
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Summary:Resource clumping (prey hotspots) and intraspecific competition may interact to influence predator foraging behaviour. Optimal foraging theory suggests that predators should concentrate most of their foraging activity on prey hotspots, but this prediction has received limited empirical support. On the other hand, if prey concentration at hotspots is high enough to allow its use by several individuals, increased competition may impose constraints on foraging decisions of conspecifics, resulting in a temporal segregation in the use of shared resources. We investigated how artificial prey hotspots influence foraging behaviour in the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus, and examined variations in the use of prey hotspots by individuals with different competitive abilities. All lynx, irrespective of their position in the competitive hierarchy, focused their activity on prey hotspots. Supplemented lynx concentrated higher proportions of active time on 100 m circular areas around hotspots than non-supplemented lynx did on any area of the same size. However, we found evidence for a dynamic temporal segregation, where inferior competitors may actively avoid the use of prey hotspots when dominants were present. Dynamic temporal segregation may operate in solitary and territorial predators as a mechanism to facilitate coexistence of conspecifics in the absence of opportunities for spatial segregation when they use extremely clumped resources.
ISSN:0030-1299
1600-0706
DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19194.x