Catch Me If You Can: Diel Activity Patterns of Mammalian Prey and Predators

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2013

Autores

Pedro Monterroso (Autor) Outra; Paulo Celio Alves (Autor) FCUP; Pablo Ferreras (Autor) Outra

Revista

Título: Ethology

Vol. 119

Páginas: 1044-1056

ISSN: 0179-1613

Editora: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexação

ISI Web of Knowledge - 117 Citações

Scopus - 124 Citações

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências exactas e naturais > Ciências biológicas

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-008-FXJ

DOI: 10.1111/eth.12156

Abstract (EN): The activity patterns exhibited by animals are shaped by evolution, but additionally fine-tuned by flexible responses to the environment. Predation risk and resource availability are environmental cues which influence the behavioural decisions that make both predators and prey engage in activity bursts, and depending on their local importance, can be strong enough to override the endogenous regulation of an animals' circadian clock. In Southern Europe, wherever the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is abundant, it is the main prey of most mammalian mesopredators, and rodents are generally the alternative prey. We evaluated the bidirectional relation between the diel activity strategies of these mammalian mesopredators and prey coexisting in south-western Europe. Results revealed that even though predation risk enforced by mammalian mesocarnivores during night-time was approximately twice and five times higher than during twilight and daytime, respectively, murids consistently displayed unimodal nocturnal behaviour. Conversely, the European rabbits exhibited a bimodal pattern that peaked around sunrise and sunset. Despite the existence of some overlap between the diel rhythms of mesocarnivores and rabbits, their patterns were not synchronized. We suggest that the environmental stressors in our study areas are not severe enough to override the endogenous regulation of the circadian cycle in murids. European rabbits, however, are able to suppress their biological tendency for nocturnality by selecting a predominantly crepuscular pattern. In spite of the higher energetic input, mesocarnivores do not completely track rabbits' activity pattern. They rather track rodents' activity. We propose that these systems have probably evolved towards a situation where some degree of activity during high-risk periods benefits the overall prey population survival, while the accessibility to sufficient prey prevents predators to completely track them.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 13