Prey availability and ambient temperature influence carrion persistence in the boreal forest

1. Scavenging by vertebrates can have important impacts on food web stability and persistence, and can alter the distribution of nutrients throughout the landscape. However, scavenging communities have been understudied in most regions around the globe, and we lack understanding of the biotic drivers of vertebrate scavenging dynamics.

2. In this paper, we examined how changes in prey density and carrion biomass caused by population cycles of a primary prey species, the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), influence scavenging communities in the northern boreal forest. We further examined the impact of habitat and temperature on scavenging dynamics.

3. We monitored the persistence time, time until first scavenger, and number of species scavenging experimentally-placed hare carcasses over four consecutive years in the southwestern Yukon. We simultaneously monitored hare density and carrion biomass to examine their influence relative to temperature, habitat, and seasonal effects. For th...