2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
9/26/2018 | 1:40 PM - 1:55 PM | Is the Decline of Grouse in Central Europe Related to Landscapes Favoring Predators? | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium
Is the Decline of Grouse in Central Europe Related to Landscapes Favoring Predators?
Grouse are threatened across temperate Europe, and habitat deterioration due to human land use changes is perceived as the major cause of decline. Human disturbance from recreational activities, climate change, and predation are considered secondary threats that mostly affect populations in suboptimal habitats. Mammalian generalist mesopredators can reach high densities in forest-farmland mosaic landscapes in the absence of top-down control by large carnivores. In Europe, high abundance of red foxes Vulpes vulpes in particular has been associated with reduced reproductive success in grouse. There is little evidence, however, on how variation in red fox abundance affects grouse population trends while considering other environmental covariates. Here, we make use of range maps spanning two decades (1993-2013) of a locally threatened capercaillie Tetrao urogallus population in the Black Forest, Germany, to assess whether range loss of grouse in forest-farmland mosaic landscapes can be explained by a gradient in red fox abundance, while accounting for other potential determinants of grouse range loss. We show that capercaillie persistence was favored by increasing snow cover, decreasing index of red fox abundance, and increasing population connectivity. Red fox abundance had the largest relative impact in areas already facing an elevated capercaillie extinction risk due to poor site or habitat conditions, or lack of connectivity, but the negative effect was compensated under otherwise optimal conditions. This indicates that the relative importance of predator abundance for grouse population dynamics is mediated by environmental attributes, emphasizing the threat to remnant populations but also indicating potential for species conservation.
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Presenters/Authors
Ilse Storch
(), Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, ilse.storch@wildlife.uni-freiburg.de;
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Jim-Lino Kaemmerle
(), Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, lino.kaemmerle@wildlife.uni-freiburg.de;
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