Habitat Selection and Risk of Predation: Re-colonization by Lynx had Limited Impact on Habitat Selection by Roe Deer

Risk of predation is an evolutionary force that affects behaviors of virtually all animals. In this study, we examined how habitat selection by roe deer was affected by risk of predation by Eurasian lynx - the main predator of roe deer in Scandinavia. Specifically, we compared how habitat selection by roe deer varied (1) before and after lynx re-established in the study area and (2) in relation to habitat-specific risk of predation by lynx. All analyses were conducted at the spatial and temporal scales of home ranges and seasons. We did not find any evidence that roe deer avoided habitats in which the risk of predation by lynx was greatest and information-theoretic model selection showed that re-colonization by lynx had limited impact on habitat selection by roe deer despite lynx predation causing 65% of known mortalities after lynx re-colonized the area. Instead we found that habitat selection decreased when habitat availability increased for 2 of 5 habitat types (a pattern referred to as functional response in habitat selection). Limited impact of re-colonization by lynx on habitat selection by roe deer in this study differs from elk in North America altering both daily and seasonal patterns in habitat selection at the spatial scales of habitat patches and home ranges when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Our study thus provides further evidence of the complexity by which animals respond to risk of predation and suggest that it may vary between ecosystems and predator-prey constellations

Exploring symbolic violence in the everyday : misrecognition, condescension, consent and complicity

The empirical material for the article was collected during a project funded by FAS (now FORTE), the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.In this paper, we draw on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of 'misrecognition', 'condescension' and 'consent and complicity' to demonstrate how domination and violence are reproduced in everyday interactions, social practices, institutional processes and dispositions. Importantly, this constitutes symbolic violence, which removes the victim's agency and voice. Indeed, we argue that as symbolic violence is impervious, insidious and invisible, it also simultaneously legitimises and sustains other forms of violence as well. Understanding symbolic violence together with traditional discourses of violence is important because it provides a richer insight into the 'workings' of violence, and provides new ways of conceptualising violence across a number of social fields and new strategies for intervention. Symbolic violence is a valuable tool for understanding contentious debates on the disclosure of violence, women leaving or staying in abusive relationships or returning to their abusers. While we focus only on violence against women, we recognise that the gendered nature of violence produces its own sets of vulnerabilities against men and marginalised groups, such as LGBT. The paper draws on empirical research conducted in Sweden in 2003. Sweden is an interesting case study because despite its progressive gender equality policies, there has been no marked decrease in violence towards women by men.PostprintPeer reviewe

Foraging Behaviours and Population Dynamics of Arctic Foxes

... The main objectives of my work are to examine (1) how arctic foxes use seasonally abundant foods and (2) how seasonal and annual fluctuations in food abundance affect foraging behaviours and population dynamics of arctic foxes. I am especially interested in how arctic foxes use geese and their eggs (i.e., seasonally abundant foods) and how this varies with fluctuations in small mammal abundance (i.e., foods that fluctuate annually). ... My work is done at Karrak Lake (67°14'N, 100°16'W) and surrounding areas in the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary in Nunavut, Canada. ... Fieldwork for my project was done in the spring and summers of 2000-04, and data analyses are currently underway. I monitor population dynamics of arctic foxes in two goose nesting areas at Karrak Lake and two areas outside the influence of nesting geese, whereas I monitor foraging behaviours of arctic foxes in one section of the goose colony at Karrak Lake. ... I examine foraging behaviours of arctic foxes by observing individually marked foxes with spotting scopes .... Avoiding cache loss to competitors is a critical component for the evolution of caching .... I examine how nesting distribution of geese and dispersal of geese away from the colony affect cache loss by evaluating the survival rate of experimentally deployed caches .... I examine arctic fox diets by comparing isotope ratios (delta 13C and delta 15N) of fox tissues ... with those of food items collected in the field .... Fur is metabolically inactive, whereas blood is metabolized continuously ..., so by examining spring blood and winter fur I obtain information on both spring and fall diets. Geese are not present at Karrak Lake in either spring or fall, so goose signatures in this study represent foods cached in summer. I monitor population dynamics of arctic foxes ... through line-transect surveys, mark-recapture studies, and den inventories. ... Goose eggs (from both nests and existing caches) made up 91% of all foods taken by arctic foxes during goose-nesting at Karrak Lake. Foxes cached 96% of these eggs (i.e., most eggs from existing caches were moved to new locations) whereas other foods (i.e., small mammals, geese, and passerine eggs) were either consumed immediately or brought back to den sites. ... Age of cache sites and dispersal by geese away from the colony after hatch (when ca. 1 million geese and their offspring leave the colony in about 10 days) affected loss of experimental caches. These results suggest that both food abundance and strategies to prevent ageing of cache sites (e.g., cache site selection and moving of caches in poor condition) were important in affecting the arrangement of caches at our study site. Cached eggs constituted 30% to 40% of the arctic foxes' diet in autumn and 0% to 30% in spring. ... The abundance of arctic foxes was predominantly affected by abundance of geese ... whereas the density of breeding foxes and litter size were predominantly affected by small mammal abundance. ... This study will provide information on how seasonal and annual fluctuations in food abundance influence use of stored foods and population dynamics of arctic foxes. ... This study will also provide information on predator-prey interactions, which can be used for management and conservation of both arctic foxes and Arctic-nesting birds. ..

Foraging behaviours and population dynamics of arctic foxes

Northern environments are often characterised by large seasonal and annual fluctuations in food abundance. In this thesis, I examined how arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) used seasonally superabundant foods (geese and their eggs) and how access to these foods influenced population dynamics of arctic foxes. I addressed this against a backdrop of variation in lemming and vole abundance (small mammals hereafter) – the main foods of arctic foxes throughout most of their range. Field work was done at the large goose colony at Karrak Lake and surrounding areas in the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary in Nunavut, Canada, in the spring and summers of 2000 to 2004. Behavioural observations of individually-marked arctic foxes showed that they took and cached 2,000-3,000 eggs per fox each year and that the rate at which they took eggs was largely unrelated to individual attributes of foxes (e.g. sex, size, and breeding status) and nesting distribution of geese. Further, the rate at which foxes took eggs varied considerably within individuals in that foxes were efficient at taking eggs at times and inefficient at other times. This may have resulted from foxes switching between foraging actively and taking eggs opportunistically while performing other demands such as territorial behaviours. Comparison of stable isotope ratios (13C and 15N) of fox tissues and those of their foods showed that the contribution of cached eggs to arctic fox diets was inversely related to collared lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus) abundance. In fact, the contribution of cached eggs to overall fox diets increased fro

Monitoring the manul: guidelines for practitioners

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Monitoring the manul: guidelines for practitioners

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Välfärdsbedömning på djurpark : en genomgång av befintlig forskning och protokoll för välfärdsbedömning samt tillämpning i djurparksmiljö

Modern zoos work with conservation, education and research which are all affected by the welfare status of the animals. This makes animal welfare assessment in a zoo environment important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the main existing protocols and related research concerning welfare assessment, both for zoo and farm animals, in order to analyse the challenges that exist when working with welfare assessment in a zoo environment. This study was performed by looking at example welfare assessment protocols from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and protocols developed for farm animals by the Welfare Quality® project. Also, related research on the topic was investigated. Welfare assessment is exercised through different methods, looking at both behavioural and physiological measures. The approach recommended by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) is the Five Domains model which include both physical domains and a mental domain that represents the subjective feelings and experiences of an animal. Welfare Quality® uses four welfare principles that each comprise two to four welfare criteria. These criteria are checked using measures that have been developed for specific species. A comparison between the example protocols from EAZA and the Welfare Quality® protocols for farm animals showed that the Welfare Quality® protocols were more covering and that just one zoo example protocol covered all criteria used by Welfare Quality®. One difficulty when assessing welfare in a zoo environment is the huge amount of species kept in zoos that all need their specific protocols and assessment criteria. Another difficulty is the great individual variation within species due to for example different backgrounds and facilities. Furthermore, it can be hard assessing the welfare of wild animals due to difficulties with behavioural measures and the handling process. In order to incorporate improvement of zoo animal welfare in an overall welfare assessment of zoo animals, a suggestion of two additions to the welfare criteria of Welfare Quality® was made. The suggested addition to the list of welfare criteria are “Encouraging foraging behaviour through nutritional enrichment” and “Reproductive success”. To further develop the welfare assessment of zoo animals, an investigation on how different example protocols for zoos work in practice should be made since such an investigation could give information to further develop welfare principles and criteria specific for a zoo environment. Furthermore, collaboration between zoos should be extended. Both between zoos with high level of resources to cooperate in making more species-specific measures and protocols, but also between these zoos and zoos with less resources that might need help with their work concerning welfare assessment

Foraging Patterns of Arctic Foxes at a Large Arctic Goose Colony

Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) are the main predators of many arctic-nesting birds, and such predation can have a large impact on the nesting performance of geese in some years and in some parts of the Arctic. We examined foraging patterns of arctic foxes at a large lesser snow goose (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) colony on Banks Island, Canada, from 1996 to 1998 and were especially interested in the proportion of food that was cached for later use and the impact that fox predation had on goose productivity. Arctic foxes took mostly eggs when foraging among geese, and most of these eggs (97%) were cached for later use. Adult geese and lemmings were taken in low numbers, and most of these foods (83% of geese and 75% of lemmings) were eaten immediately. In years with high fox abundance, the foxes spent considerable effort moving eggs from old caches. This behaviour may have resulted from high rates of cache pilfering, or foxes may have been moving caches to deter cache pilfering. The impact of fox predation was low in all years, and foxes took only about 4-8% of all eggs available at the colony during incubation each year. However, caching and use of cached eggs may influence the survival of arctic foxes by forming significant parts of their winter diet or by supplementing the diets of growing young: during nesting each year, foxes took on average 900-1570 eggs per fox.Le renard arctique (Alopex lagopus) constitue le prédateur principal de nombreux oiseaux nicheurs de l'Arctique, et cette prédation peut avoir des conséquences majeures sur le succès de la couvaison des oies durant certaines années et dans certaines parties de l'Arctique. Notre étude, réalisée de 1996 à 1998, sur les schémas de recherche de nourriture du renard arctique dans une vaste colonie de petites oies des neiges (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) située dans l'île Banks, au Canada, portait surtout sur la proportion de nourriture qui était dissimulée dans des caches pour consommation ultérieure ainsi que sur l'impact qu'avait la prédation du renard sur la productivité de l'oie. Le renard arctique prélevait surtout des œufs quand il cherchait de la nourriture parmi les oies, et la plupart des œufs (97 p. cent) étaient dissimulés pour consommation ultérieure. Les oies adultes et les lemmings étaient prélevés en faible quantité, et la plupart de ces aliments (83 p. cent des oies et 75 p. cent des lemmings) étaient consommés dans l'immédiat. Durant les années d'abondance du renard, les renards faisaient des efforts considérables pour déplacer les œufs d'anciennes caches. Ce comportement peut avoir été dû à un taux élevé de vols de caches, ou bien les renards peuvent avoir déplacé leurs caches pour en décourager le vol. L'impact de la prédation du renard était faible durant toutes les années, et les renards ne prenaient annuellement qu'environ 4 à 8 p. cent de tous les œufs disponibles à la colonie durant l'incubation. La dissimulation dans des caches et l'utilisation des œufs qui y sont conservés pourraient avoir une influence sur la survie du renard arctique, car les caches représentent une partie importante du régime hivernal du renard ou complètent le régime des petits en croissance: durant la nidification annuelle, les renards prélevaient une moyenne de 900 à 1570 œufs par individu

What does the fox say? Arctic fox vocalization and associated den behaviours

Foxes (Vulpes spp.) are small, solitary canids with relatively low social complex-ity compared to more gregarious canids, such as wolves and dogs. They are, therefore, expected to have a relatively simple vocal repertoire, with limited low-intensity sounds for close communication and many high-intensity sounds for long-distance communication. Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus), like many other foxes, are largely solitary outside of the breeding season. However, they have the largest litter size in the order Carnivora and may experience enhanced social complexity during the breeding season. In this study, we document the vocal repertoire of the Arctic fox during the breeding season, and how it changes before and after the emergence of pups. We also describe the relation-ship between vocalizations and other denning behaviours. Camera-traps cap-tured six distinct sounds produced by breeding pairs of Arctic foxes and their young at dens: territorial barks, warning barks, alarm calls, cooing, whines and growling. Our study shows that although high-intensity sounds, such as terri-torial barks, are an important form of long-distance communication among Arctic foxes, low-intensity sounds and sound mixing are used on their dens following pup emergence. Thus, Arctic fox vocalization may be more complex than previously documented.publishedVersio