Competition and facilitation in culturally significant herbivores

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Competition and facilitation are difficult to measure as direct or indirect effects between two animal species. Indirect effects like facilitation are as a result less appreciated than they might be in animal ecology. I have been successful in launching a program of study that considers indirect interactions in large herbivores. Continuing in this theme, I will consider a specific subset of competitive effects (density dependent changes in foraging behaviour in the North American beaver and in the vicuña, an Andean camelid) and a specific subset of facilitation effects (provision of moose aquatic feeding areas with beaver impoundment of small streams, facilitation of wolf hunting by creation of pond shorelines, and livestock effects on wild camelids that reduce interspecific competition and increase foraging efficiency) that might vary in size with variation in water availability. Dispersal of beavers will be compared across a landscape of undulating wetlands and upland forest in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota. Habitat use in moose will be studied in the context of beaver effects in creating this flooded landscape. Habitat use in beavers will be matched to varying mating systems that may affect survival, dispersal and their landscape 'engineering' ability. The beaver, moose and wolf system can be reconstructed through time by matching wetland distribution today to published information on past beaver colonization of Voyageurs National Park. Habitat use in vicuñas will be compared in richer, wetland foraging areas and in dryer, forage-poor areas, where the effect of livestock on vigilance behaviour in vicuñas will also be tested. This Ecuador-based study will likely identify facilitation that varies in rainy and dry seasons. Together, the Minnesota and the Ecuador studies add to the literature on colonization of habitats of variable quality. The Ecuador study contributes to how we understand different species may co-exist, including livestock, herders and wildlife, in this way adding importantly to conservation literature. Both studies will train students in wildlife investigation techniques and will offer new insights in ecology.