Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes

Impacts of generalist predators on declining prey populations are a major conservation issue, but management of this situation is constrained by limited knowledge of the factors influencing predator distribution and activity. In many declining populations of ground-nesting waders, high levels of nes...

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Autores principales:	Rebecca A. Laidlaw, Jennifer Smart, Mark A. Smart, Thomas W. Bodey, Tessa Coledale, Jennifer A. Gill
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Resilience Alliance 2019
Materias:	habitat management landscape management predation pressure shorebirds sward structure Plant culture SB1-1110 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Plant ecology QK900-989
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a002f98e39b94e2f9c4deb32084dba36
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a002f98e39b94e2f9c4deb32084dba362021-12-02T12:01:44ZFoxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes1712-6568https://doaj.org/article/a002f98e39b94e2f9c4deb32084dba362019-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.ace-eco.org/vol14/iss2/art4/https://doaj.org/toc/1712-6568Impacts of generalist predators on declining prey populations are a major conservation issue, but management of this situation is constrained by limited knowledge of the factors influencing predator distribution and activity. In many declining populations of ground-nesting waders, high levels of nest and chick predation are preventing population recovery. Red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, are the main predator but their primary prey is small mammals. On wet grasslands managed for breeding waders, small mammals are concentrated in tall vegetation outside of fields, and nests closer to these patches are less likely to be predated. To assess whether these patterns result from fox attraction to small mammals, and thus the potential for management of tall vegetation to influence nest predation rates, we quantify seasonal and spatial variation in fox and small mammal activity in relation to tall vegetation patches. Across wet grassland sites, tall vegetation patches of any size (> 0.05 ha) supported small mammals and small mammal activity increased throughout the wader breeding season, while the use of fox track plots within fields declined seasonally. Although within field fox track plot use did not vary with distance to tall vegetation, over the 1064 nights of trail camera recording, foxes were seen in areas with tall vegetation on 13 nights compared with short vegetation on only two nights. These findings suggest that lower predation rates of Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, nests close to tall vegetation could reflect fox attraction to areas with small mammal activity, but any such effects would primarily operate later in the breeding season, and may therefore primarily influence late nests and chicks.Rebecca A. LaidlawJennifer SmartMark A. SmartThomas W. BodeyTessa ColedaleJennifer A. GillResilience Alliancearticlehabitat managementlandscape managementpredation pressureshorebirdssward structurePlant cultureSB1-1110Environmental sciencesGE1-350Plant ecologyQK900-989ENAvian Conservation and Ecology, Vol 14, Iss 2, p 4 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	habitat management landscape management predation pressure shorebirds sward structure Plant culture SB1-1110 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Plant ecology QK900-989
spellingShingle	habitat management landscape management predation pressure shorebirds sward structure Plant culture SB1-1110 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Plant ecology QK900-989 Rebecca A. Laidlaw Jennifer Smart Mark A. Smart Thomas W. Bodey Tessa Coledale Jennifer A. Gill Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
description	Impacts of generalist predators on declining prey populations are a major conservation issue, but management of this situation is constrained by limited knowledge of the factors influencing predator distribution and activity. In many declining populations of ground-nesting waders, high levels of nest and chick predation are preventing population recovery. Red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, are the main predator but their primary prey is small mammals. On wet grasslands managed for breeding waders, small mammals are concentrated in tall vegetation outside of fields, and nests closer to these patches are less likely to be predated. To assess whether these patterns result from fox attraction to small mammals, and thus the potential for management of tall vegetation to influence nest predation rates, we quantify seasonal and spatial variation in fox and small mammal activity in relation to tall vegetation patches. Across wet grassland sites, tall vegetation patches of any size (> 0.05 ha) supported small mammals and small mammal activity increased throughout the wader breeding season, while the use of fox track plots within fields declined seasonally. Although within field fox track plot use did not vary with distance to tall vegetation, over the 1064 nights of trail camera recording, foxes were seen in areas with tall vegetation on 13 nights compared with short vegetation on only two nights. These findings suggest that lower predation rates of Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, nests close to tall vegetation could reflect fox attraction to areas with small mammal activity, but any such effects would primarily operate later in the breeding season, and may therefore primarily influence late nests and chicks.
format	article
author	Rebecca A. Laidlaw Jennifer Smart Mark A. Smart Thomas W. Bodey Tessa Coledale Jennifer A. Gill
author_facet	Rebecca A. Laidlaw Jennifer Smart Mark A. Smart Thomas W. Bodey Tessa Coledale Jennifer A. Gill
author_sort	Rebecca A. Laidlaw
title	Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
title_short	Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
title_full	Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
title_fullStr	Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
title_full_unstemmed	Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
title_sort	foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes
publisher	Resilience Alliance
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/a002f98e39b94e2f9c4deb32084dba36
work_keys_str_mv	AT rebeccaalaidlaw foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes AT jennifersmart foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes AT markasmart foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes AT thomaswbodey foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes AT tessacoledale foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes AT jenniferagill foxesvolesandwadersdriversofpredatoractivityinwetgrasslandlandscapes
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Foxes, voles, and waders: drivers of predator activity in wet grassland landscapes

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