Elk alter habitat selection as an antipredator response to wolves
Elk alter habitat selection as an antipredator response to wolves
复制标题
DOI：
10.1890/05-0032
复制
发表时间：
2005-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Creel, M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Creel, S;Winnie, J;Creel, M
对于美国蒙大拿州大黄石生态系统加勒廷流域的麋鹿（Cervus elaphus）来说，狼的活动导致当地捕食风险在几天的时间尺度上发生了实质性的变化。来自GPS无线电项圈的空间和时间精细尺度数据表明，当狼存在时，麋鹿会移动到林地的保护地，减少了它们对具有高捕食风险的首选草原觅食栖息地的使用。通过限制栖息地选择，狼对麋鹿动态的影响可能比在直接捕食的基础上预测的更大。根据狼群重新引入后木本植被的变化，有人认为麋鹿的反捕食反应可能在黄石生态系统中驱动了一个营养级联。然而，由于缺乏捕食风险的空间变化以及麋鹿对风险变化的反应方式的直接数据，迄今为止的研究受到了阻碍。我们的数据支持了假设的核心部分，即麋鹿反捕食者的行为可以驱动营养级联，但麋鹿数量的变化也可能影响麋鹿与植物的相互作用。
For elk (Cervus elaphus) in the Gallatin drainage of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Montana, USA, wolf movements caused local predation risk to vary substantially on a time scale of days. Spatially and temporally fine-scaled data from GPS radio collars show that elk moved into the protective cover of wooded areas when wolves were present, reducing their use of preferred grassland foraging habitats that had high predation risk. By constraining habitat selection, wolves may have greater effects oil elk dynamics than would be predicted oil the basis of direct predation alone. Based on changes in the woody vegetation following the reintroduction of wolves, it has been suggested that antipredator responses by elk may be driving a trophic cascade in the Yellowstone ecosystem. However, Studies to date have been hampered by a lack of direct data on spatial variation in predation risk, and the ways in which elk respond to variation in risk. Our data Support a central portion of the hypothesis that elk antipredator behavior could drive a trophic cascade, but changes in elk numbers are also likely to have affected elk-plant interactions.