Resource pulses influence the spatio-temporal dynamics of a large carnivore population

Resource availability is a key component in animal ecology, yet the manner in which carnivore populations respond to spatial and temporal fluctuations of resources remains
unclear. We take a population-level approach to determine how resource pulses, in this case a temporary hyper-abundance of prey, influence the densities and space-use of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus. The Maasai Mara in Kenya experiences an annual migration of > 1.4 million wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus and large numbers of zebras Equus quagga and Thomson’s gazelle Eudorcas thomsonii thereby providing a natural experiment to examine the influence of resource pulses on carnivore movement and densities. To draw inferences on fluctuating cheetah densities and space-use, we collected unstructured search-encounter data during eight sampling sessions, four during and four out of the migration, and analysed these using Bayesian spatially-explicit capture–recapture (SECR) models with sex-specific detection function paramet...

资源可获得性是动物生态学的核心组成部分，但食肉动物种群响应资源时空波动的具体机制仍不明确。本研究采用种群水平的研究方法，旨在探明资源脉冲——即猎物的暂时性超富集——如何影响猎豹（Acinonyx jubatus）的种群密度与空间利用模式。肯尼亚马赛马拉（Maasai Mara）每年都会迎来超过140万头蓝牛羚（Connochaetes taurinus，即角马）的大规模迁徙，同时伴随大量平原斑马（Equus quagga）与汤姆森瞪羚（Eudorcas thomsonii）的迁移活动，这为探究资源脉冲对食肉动物移动模式与种群密度的影响提供了天然实验场景。为推断猎豹种群密度与空间利用的波动规律，本研究在8个采样周期内收集了非结构化搜索偶遇数据，其中4个周期处于迁徙季，另外4个处于非迁徙季，并采用带有性别特异性检测函数参数的贝叶斯空间显性捕获-再捕获（SECR）模型对上述数据进行分析。