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Only the largest terrestrial Carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness

Ferretti, F.; Lovari, S.; Lucherini, M.; Hayward, M.W.; Stephens, P.A.

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Authors

F. Ferretti

S. Lovari

M. Lucherini

M.W. Hayward



Abstract

1. Animals should adapt their foraging habits, changing their dietary breadth in response to variation in the richness and availability of food resources. Understanding how species modify their dietary breadth according to variation in resource richness would support predictions of their responses to environmental changes that alter prey communities. 2. We evaluated relationships between the dietary breadth of large terrestrial carnivores and the local richness of large prey (defined as the number of species). We tested alternative predictions suggested by ecological and evolutionary theories: with increasing prey richness, species would (1) show a more diverse diet, thus broadening their dietary breadth, or (2) narrow their dietary breadth, indicating specialisation on a smaller number of prey. 3. We collated data from 505 studies of the diets of 12 species of large terrestrial mammalian carnivores to model relationships between two indices of dietary breadth and local prey richness. 4. For the majority of species, we found no evidence for narrowing dietary breadth (i.e. increased specialisation) with increasing prey richness. Although the snow leopard and the dhole appeared to use a lower number of large prey species with increasing prey richness, larger sample sizes are needed to support this result. 5. With increasing prey richness, the five largest carnivores (puma Puma concolor , spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta , jaguar Panthera onca , lion Panthera leo , and tiger Panthera tigris ), plus the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and the grey wolf Canis lupus (which are usually top predators in the areas from which data were obtained), showed greater dietary breadth and/or used a greater number of large prey species (i.e. increased generalism). 6. We suggest that dominant large carnivores encounter little competition in expanding their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness; conversely, the dietary niche of subordinate large carnivores is limited by competition with larger, dominant predators. We suggest that, over evolutionary time, resource partitioning is more important in shaping the dietary niche of smaller, inferior competitors than the niche of dominant ones.

Citation

Ferretti, F., Lovari, S., Lucherini, M., Hayward, M., & Stephens, P. (2020). Only the largest terrestrial Carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness. Mammal Review, 50(3), 291-303. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 4, 2020
Online Publication Date Jun 3, 2020
Publication Date 2020-07
Deposit Date Feb 7, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Mammal Review
Print ISSN 0305-1838
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 50
Issue 3
Pages 291-303
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12197

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Ferretti, F., Lovari, S., Lucherini, M., Hayward, M.W. & Stephens, P.A. (2020). Only the largest terrestrial Carnivores increase their dietary breadth with increasing prey richness. Mammal Review 50(3): 291-303 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.1219. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.





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