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Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics
Anthropogenic changes in land use and the extirpation of apex predators have facilitated explosive growth of mesopredator populations. Consequently, many species have been subjected to extensive control throughout portions of their range due to their integral role as generalist predators and reservo...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3604110/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23527065 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058982 |
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author | Beasley, James C. Olson, Zachary H. Beatty, William S. Dharmarajan, Guha Rhodes, Olin E. |
author_facet | Beasley, James C. Olson, Zachary H. Beatty, William S. Dharmarajan, Guha Rhodes, Olin E. |
author_sort | Beasley, James C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Anthropogenic changes in land use and the extirpation of apex predators have facilitated explosive growth of mesopredator populations. Consequently, many species have been subjected to extensive control throughout portions of their range due to their integral role as generalist predators and reservoirs of zoonotic disease. Yet, few studies have monitored the effects of landscape composition or configuration on the demographic or behavioral response of mesopredators to population manipulation. During 2007 we removed 382 raccoons (Procyon lotor) from 30 forest patches throughout a fragmented agricultural ecosystem to test hypotheses regarding the effects of habitat isolation on population recovery and role of range expansion and dispersal in patch colonization of mesopredators in heterogeneous landscapes. Patches were allowed to recolonize naturally and demographic restructuring of patches was monitored from 2008–2010 using mark-recapture. An additional 25 control patches were monitored as a baseline measure of demography. After 3 years only 40% of experimental patches had returned to pre-removal densities. This stagnant recovery was driven by low colonization rates of females, resulting in little to no within-patch recruitment. Colonizing raccoons were predominantly young males, suggesting that dispersal, rather than range expansion, was the primary mechanism driving population recovery. Contrary to our prediction, neither landscape connectivity nor measured local habitat attributes influenced colonization rates, likely due to the high dispersal capability of raccoons and limited role of range expansion in patch colonization. Although culling is commonly used to control local populations of many mesopredators, we demonstrate that such practices create severe disruptions in population demography that may be counterproductive to disease management in fragmented landscapes due to an influx of dispersing males into depopulated areas. However, given the slow repopulation rates observed in our study, localized depopulation may be effective at reducing negative ecological impacts of mesopredators in fragmented landscapes at limited spatial and temporal scales. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3604110 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36041102013-03-22 Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics Beasley, James C. Olson, Zachary H. Beatty, William S. Dharmarajan, Guha Rhodes, Olin E. PLoS One Research Article Anthropogenic changes in land use and the extirpation of apex predators have facilitated explosive growth of mesopredator populations. Consequently, many species have been subjected to extensive control throughout portions of their range due to their integral role as generalist predators and reservoirs of zoonotic disease. Yet, few studies have monitored the effects of landscape composition or configuration on the demographic or behavioral response of mesopredators to population manipulation. During 2007 we removed 382 raccoons (Procyon lotor) from 30 forest patches throughout a fragmented agricultural ecosystem to test hypotheses regarding the effects of habitat isolation on population recovery and role of range expansion and dispersal in patch colonization of mesopredators in heterogeneous landscapes. Patches were allowed to recolonize naturally and demographic restructuring of patches was monitored from 2008–2010 using mark-recapture. An additional 25 control patches were monitored as a baseline measure of demography. After 3 years only 40% of experimental patches had returned to pre-removal densities. This stagnant recovery was driven by low colonization rates of females, resulting in little to no within-patch recruitment. Colonizing raccoons were predominantly young males, suggesting that dispersal, rather than range expansion, was the primary mechanism driving population recovery. Contrary to our prediction, neither landscape connectivity nor measured local habitat attributes influenced colonization rates, likely due to the high dispersal capability of raccoons and limited role of range expansion in patch colonization. Although culling is commonly used to control local populations of many mesopredators, we demonstrate that such practices create severe disruptions in population demography that may be counterproductive to disease management in fragmented landscapes due to an influx of dispersing males into depopulated areas. However, given the slow repopulation rates observed in our study, localized depopulation may be effective at reducing negative ecological impacts of mesopredators in fragmented landscapes at limited spatial and temporal scales. Public Library of Science 2013-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3604110/ /pubmed/23527065 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058982 Text en © 2013 Beasley et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Beasley, James C. Olson, Zachary H. Beatty, William S. Dharmarajan, Guha Rhodes, Olin E. Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title | Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title_full | Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title_fullStr | Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title_full_unstemmed | Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title_short | Effects of Culling on Mesopredator Population Dynamics |
title_sort | effects of culling on mesopredator population dynamics |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3604110/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23527065 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058982 |
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