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Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears

1. The removal of individuals through hunting can destabilize social structure, potentially affecting population dynamics. Although previous studies have shown that hunting can indirectly reduce juvenile survival through increased sexually selected infanticide (SSI), very little is known about the s...

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Autores principales: Gosselin, Jacinthe, Leclerc, Martin, Zedrosser, Andreas, Steyaert, Sam M. J. G., Swenson, Jon E., Pelletier, Fanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5215440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27448763
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12576
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author Gosselin, Jacinthe
Leclerc, Martin
Zedrosser, Andreas
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Swenson, Jon E.
Pelletier, Fanie
author_facet Gosselin, Jacinthe
Leclerc, Martin
Zedrosser, Andreas
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Swenson, Jon E.
Pelletier, Fanie
author_sort Gosselin, Jacinthe
collection PubMed
description 1. The removal of individuals through hunting can destabilize social structure, potentially affecting population dynamics. Although previous studies have shown that hunting can indirectly reduce juvenile survival through increased sexually selected infanticide (SSI), very little is known about the spatiotemporal effects of male hunting on juvenile survival. 2. Using detailed individual monitoring of a hunted population of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Sweden (1991–2011), we assessed the spatiotemporal effect of male removal on cub survival. 3. We modelled cub survival before, during and after the mating season. We used three proxies to evaluate spatial and temporal variation in male turnover; distance and timing of the closest male killed and number of males that died around a female's home range centre. 4. Male removal decreased cub survival only during the mating season, as expected in seasonal breeders with SSI. Cub survival increased with distance to the closest male killed within the previous 1·5 years, and it was lower when the closest male killed was removed 1·5 instead of 0·5 year earlier. We did not detect an effect of the number of males killed. 5. Our results support the hypothesis that social restructuring due to hunting can reduce recruitment and suggest that the distribution of the male deaths might be more important than the overall number of males that die. As the removal of individuals through hunting is typically not homogenously distributed across the landscape, spatial heterogeneity in hunting pressure may cause source–sink dynamics, with lower recruitment in areas of high human‐induced mortality.
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spelling pubmed-52154402017-01-18 Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears Gosselin, Jacinthe Leclerc, Martin Zedrosser, Andreas Steyaert, Sam M. J. G. Swenson, Jon E. Pelletier, Fanie J Anim Ecol Population Ecology 1. The removal of individuals through hunting can destabilize social structure, potentially affecting population dynamics. Although previous studies have shown that hunting can indirectly reduce juvenile survival through increased sexually selected infanticide (SSI), very little is known about the spatiotemporal effects of male hunting on juvenile survival. 2. Using detailed individual monitoring of a hunted population of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Sweden (1991–2011), we assessed the spatiotemporal effect of male removal on cub survival. 3. We modelled cub survival before, during and after the mating season. We used three proxies to evaluate spatial and temporal variation in male turnover; distance and timing of the closest male killed and number of males that died around a female's home range centre. 4. Male removal decreased cub survival only during the mating season, as expected in seasonal breeders with SSI. Cub survival increased with distance to the closest male killed within the previous 1·5 years, and it was lower when the closest male killed was removed 1·5 instead of 0·5 year earlier. We did not detect an effect of the number of males killed. 5. Our results support the hypothesis that social restructuring due to hunting can reduce recruitment and suggest that the distribution of the male deaths might be more important than the overall number of males that die. As the removal of individuals through hunting is typically not homogenously distributed across the landscape, spatial heterogeneity in hunting pressure may cause source–sink dynamics, with lower recruitment in areas of high human‐induced mortality. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-08-30 2017-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5215440/ /pubmed/27448763 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12576 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Population Ecology
Gosselin, Jacinthe
Leclerc, Martin
Zedrosser, Andreas
Steyaert, Sam M. J. G.
Swenson, Jon E.
Pelletier, Fanie
Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title_full Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title_fullStr Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title_full_unstemmed Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title_short Hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
title_sort hunting promotes sexual conflict in brown bears
topic Population Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5215440/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27448763
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12576
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