Trade-offs between maternal foraging and fawn predation risk in an income breeder |
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Authors: | Manuela Panzacchi Ivar Herfindal John D C Linnell Morten Odden John Odden Reidar Andersen |
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Institution: | (1) Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tungasletta-2, 7485 Trondheim, Norway;(2) Centre for Conservation Biology, Biology Department, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway;(3) Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ǻs, Norway;(4) Section of Natural History, Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway;(5) Present address: Faculty of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Hedmark University College, 2418 Elverum, Norway |
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Abstract: | The choice of neonatal hiding place is critical for ungulates adopting hiding anti-predator strategies, but the consequences
of different decisions have rarely been evaluated with respect to offspring survival. First, we investigated how landscape-scale
choices made by roe deer fawns and their mothers affected predation risk by red foxes in a forest–farmland mosaic in southeastern
Norway. After, we examined the effect of site-specific characteristics and behaviour (i.e. visibility, mother–fawn distance
and abundance of the predator’s main prey item—small rodents) on predation risk. The study of habitat use, selection and habitat-specific
mortality revealed that roe deer utilised the landscape matrix in a functional way, with different habitats used for feeding,
providing maternal care and as refugia from predation. Mothers faced a trade-off between foraging and offspring survival.
At the landscape-scale decisions were primarily determined by maternal energetic constraints and only secondarily by risk
avoidance. Indeed, forage-rich habitats were strongly selected notwithstanding the exceptionally high densities of rodents
which increased fawn predation. At fine spatial scales, a high visibility of the mother was the major factor determining predation
risk; however, mothers adjusted their behaviour to the level of risk at the bed site to minimise predation. Fawns selected
both landscape-scale refugia and concealed bed sites, but failure to segregate from the main prey of red foxes led to higher
predation. This study provides evidence for the occurrence of spatial heterogeneity in predation risk and shows that energetically
stressed individuals can tackle the foraging-safety trade-off by adopting scale-dependent anti-predator responses. |
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