PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 143: Predator - Prey Ecology: Intraguild Predation and Community Dynamics
Thursday, August 11, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 522 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Intraguild predation and coexistence in mammalian predators.
Aunapuu, Maano*,1, Oksanen, Lauri1, Oksanen, Tarja1, 1 Dept. of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå, Sweden
ABSTRACT- Intraguild predation (IGP) and its impact on the coexistence of predators in a community has gained large attention recently. However, most of the work has been heavily concentrated on ectothermic predators. We analyzed the effect of IGP on coexistence of a small and large predator in a community of endothermic mammalian species with a common prey. Using both analytical and simulation approach, we obtained the results, showing that the effect of IGP in assemblages of endothermic predators would be reduced possibility for coexistence. In fact, we argue that in these kind of communities IGP functions as an extreme form of interference competition. Moreover we found that enrichment of assemblages of endothermic predators with IGP does not lead to the predictable replacement of IG prey by IG predator but, instead leads to alternative stable states, where either of the two predators could prevail.
Key words: intraguild predation, coexistence, mammalian predators