Lopez, José
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- University of Oviedo
Research article2019Peer reviewedOpen access
Lopez-Bao, Jose Vicente; Aronsson, Malin; Linnell, John D. C.; Odden, John; Persson, Jens; Andren, Henrik
Despite extensive research on the ecology and behavioural adaptations of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes, information about the fitness consequences of sharing landscapes is still limited. We assessed the variation in three consecutive components of female fitness: the probability of reproduction, litter size and juvenile survival in relation to environmental and human factors in a solitary carnivore, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), occurring in human-dominated landscapes in Scandinavia. We used demographic data from 57 radio-collared adult females between 1995-2011 (126 radio-years). Overall, the yearly probability of female reproduction was 0.80, mean litter size was 2.34 (range 1-4) and the probability to find a female that reproduced in the spring being accompanied by at least one offspring during the subsequent winter was 0.70. We did not find evidence that food availability was a key factor influencing female fitness. Female lynx may adapt to food availability when establishing their home ranges by adopting an obstinate strategy, ensuring a minimum amount of prey necessary for survival and reproduction even during periods of prey scarcity. In human-dominated landscapes, where sufficient prey are available for lynx, mortality risk may have a larger influence on lynx population dynamics compared to food availability. Our results suggest that lynx population dynamics in human-dominated landscapes may be mainly driven by human impacts on survival.
Scientific Reports
2019, Volume: 9, article number: 8903Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
SDG15 Life on land
Ecology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45569-2
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/100908