Intraguild relationships between sympatric predators exposed to lethal control: predator manipulation experiments
Article
Article Title | Intraguild relationships between sympatric predators exposed to lethal control: predator manipulation experiments |
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ERA Journal ID | 3087 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Allen, Benjamin L., Allen, Lee R., Engeman, Richard M. and Leung, Luke K.-P. |
Journal Title | Frontiers in Zoology |
Journal Citation | 10, pp. 1-18 |
Article Number | 39 |
Number of Pages | 18 |
Year | 2013 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1742-9994 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-10-39 |
Web Address (URL) | http://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-39 |
Abstract | Introduction: Terrestrial top-predators are expected to regulate and stabilise food webs through their consumptive and non-consumptive effects on sympatric mesopredators and prey. The lethal control of top-predators has therefore been predicted to inhibit top-predator function, generate the release of mesopredators and indirectly harm native fauna through trophic cascade effects. Understanding the outcomes of lethal control on interactions within terrestrial predator guilds is important for zoologists, conservation biologists and wildlife managers. However, Result: Short-term behavioural releases of mesopredators were not apparent, and in almost all cases, the three mesopredators we assessed were in similar or greater abundance in unbaited areas relative to baited areas, with mesopredator abundance trends typically either uncorrelated or positively correlated with top-predator abundance trends over time. The exotic mammals and native reptile we assessed responded similarly (poorly) to top-predator population manipulation. This is because poison baits were taken by multiple target and non-target predators and top- predator populations quickly recovered to pre-control levels, thus reducing the overall impact of baiting on top-predators and averting a trophic cascade. Conclusions: These results are in accord with other predator manipulation experiments conducted worldwide, and suggest that Australian populations of native prey fauna at lower trophic levels are unlikely to be negatively affected by contemporary dingo control practices through the release of mesopredators. We conclude that contemporary lethal control practices used on some top-predator populations do not produce the conditions required to generate positive responses from mesopredators. Functional relationships between sympatric terrestrial predators may not be altered by exposure to spatially and temporally sporadic application of non-selective lethal control. |
Keywords | Canis lupus dingo; dingo; European red fox; Felis catus; feral cat; mesopredator release; monitor lizard; poison baiting; predator control; Trophic cascade; Varanus spp.; Vulpes vulpes |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 410499. Environmental management not elsewhere classified |
Byline Affiliations | University of Queensland |
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland | |
Department of Agriculture, United States | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q3829/intraguild-relationships-between-sympatric-predators-exposed-to-lethal-control-predator-manipulation-experiments
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