Seasonal Compensation of Predation and Harvesting

Compensatory mortality or natality can operate as a consequence of seasonally driven mechanisms of density dependence. Our objective is to clarify the relationship between compensation and density dependence in population models for vertebrates when seasonality is present. Field studies of a variety of species have demonstrated that due to compensation, predation or human harvest may not influence spring-breeding or pre-harvest-season densities. Compensation seems to contradict most harvesting and predation models because these models predict that harvests or predation will always reduce equilibrium population size. In these population models sustainable harvests are attainable because of density dependence. The apparent discrepancy is attributable to the failure of most population models to incorporate the details of environmental seasonality. We review seasonally explicit models of population dynamics to illustrate how density dependence is the mechanism behind compensatory mortality and natality. Even though spring-breeding or pre-season densities can remain unaffected or even increased by harvesting, harvesting or predation generally reduces the integral of population size. Compensatory mortality and natality are often cited as the basis for sustainable harvests of wildlife populations.

[1]  M. Boyce.  BEAVER LIFE-HISTORY RESPONSES TO EXPLOITATION , 1981 .

[2]  David R. Anderson,et al.  Tests of Compensatory vs. Additive Hypotheses of Mortality in Mallards , 1984 .

[3]  Paul L. Errington,et al.  Predation and Vertebrate Populations , 1946, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[4]  J. Gaillard,et al.  Population dynamics of large herbivores: variable recruitment with constant adult survival. , 1998, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[5]  T. Struhsaker.  A Biologist’s Perspective on the Role of Sustainable Harvest in Conservation , 1998 .

[6]  Frances C. James,et al.  Bird population studies : relevance to conservation and management , 1993 .

[7]  Hanna Kokko,et al.  Seasonal density dependence, timing of mortality, and sustainable harvesting , 1998 .

[8]  William J. Sutherland,et al.  The Effectiveness of Removing Predators to Protect Bird Populations , 1997 .

[9]  C. Darwin.  Charles Darwin The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 2004 .

[10]  Gary C. White,et al.  Compensatory mortality in a Colorado mule deer population , 1992 .

[11]  Z Huang,et al.  [Species composition and distribution of algae in semi-desert algal crusts]. , 1974, Ying yong sheng tai xue bao = The journal of applied ecology.

[12]  Ray Hilborn,et al.  Food regulates the Serengeti wildebeest: a 40‐year record , 1999 .

[13]  R. D. Boertje,et al.  The role of predation in limiting moose at low densities in Alaska and Yukon and implications for conservation , 1992 .

[14]  B. Williams.  Logic and science in wildlife biology , 1997 .

[15]  Per Lundberg,et al.  Population dynamics with sequential density-dependencies. , 1996 .

[16]  Mark L. Shaffer,et al.  Determining Minimum Viable Population Sizes for the Grizzly Bear , 1983 .

[17]  R. P. Silliman,et al.  Experimental exploitation of fish populations , 1958 .

[18]  Robert J. Small,et al.  Predation and hunting mortality of ruffed grouse in central Wisconsin , 1991 .

[19]  Per Lundberg,et al.  Temporally structured density-dependence and population management , 1999 .

[20]  D. McCullough,et al.  The George Reserve Deer Herd , 1979 .

[21]  G. Haramis,et al.  Density-Production Characteristics of Box-Nesting Wood Ducks in a Northern Greentree Impoundment , 1985 .

[22]  Roy Mendelssohn,et al.  Optimization Problems Associated with a Leslie Matrix , 1976, The American Naturalist.

[23]  W. D. Klimstra,et al.  Population Ecology of the Bobwhite , 1984 .

[24]  S. Goldhor.  Ecology , 1964, The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.

[25]  I. Newton.  Predation and Limitation of Bird Numbers , 1993 .

[26]  G. Caughley,et al.  Analysis of vertebrate populations , 1977 .

[27]  W. Clark.  Effects of harvest on annual survival of muskrats , 1987 .

[28]  Can seasonal changes in density dependence drive population cycles? , 1999, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[29]  A. Bennett.  The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 1872, Nature.

[30]  Paul R. Krausman,et al.  A Review of Wildlife Management , 1986 .

[31]  C. Darwin.  On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 2019 .

[32]  D. Morris.  Temporal and Spatial Population Dynamics among Patches Connected by Habitat Selection , 1996 .

[33]  G. White,et al.  Effect of density reduction on overwinter survival of free-ranging mule deer fawns , 1998 .

[34]  P. Yodzis,et al.  Introduction to Theoretical Ecology , 1989 .

[35]  I. Newton,et al.  Population Limitation in Birds , 1998 .

[36]  J. M. Elliott,et al.  Fish Population Dynamics , 1989 .

[37]  P. L. Errington.  Some Contributions of a Fifteen-Year Local Study of the Northern Bobwhite to a Knowledge of Population Phenomena , 1945 .

[38]  F. Hamerstrom,et al.  The Northern Bob-White's winter territory , 1936 .

[39]  J. Wiens,et al.  Of Predation and Life , 1967 .

[40]  Milner B. Schaefer.  Some aspects of the dynamics of populations important to the management of the commercial marine fisheries , 1991 .

[41]  H. Kokko,et al.  Assessing the impact of spring hunting on waterfowl populations , 1998 .

[42]  Adam C. Smith,et al.  Mortality causes and survival rates of hunted and unhunted willow grouse , 1999 .

[43]  C. Fowler.  A Review of Density Dependence in Populations of Large Mammals , 1987 .

[44]  A. Sinclair,et al.  Density dependence, stochasticity, compensation and predator regulation , 1996 .

[45]  D. Jenkins,et al.  Predation and Red Grouse Populations , 1964 .

[46]  David R. Anderson,et al.  Population ecology of the mallard: VI. The effect of exploitation on survival , 1976 .

[47]  David R. Anderson,et al.  Compensatory mortality in waterfowl populations: A review of the evidence and implications for research and management , 1984 .

[48]  Ian Newton,et al.  EXPERIMENTS ON THE LIMITATION OF BIRD NUMBERS BY TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOUR , 1992 .

[49]  D. Daley,et al.  Population Tracking of Fluctuating Environments and Natural Selection for Tracking Ability , 1980, The American Naturalist.

[50]  David Jenkins.  Of Predation and Life , by Paul L. Errington. Iowa State University Press , 1968, Oryx.

[51]  C. Christy,et al.  THE AFRICAN BUFFALO , 1923 .

[52]  O. C. Wallmo.  Mule and black-tailed deer of North America. , 1982 .

[53]  R. Hilborn,et al.  Sustainable Exploitation of Renewable Resources , 1995 .

[54]  G. White,et al.  Mule deer survival in Colorado, Idaho, and Montana , 1999 .

[55]  S. Fretwell.  Populations in a seasonal environment. , 1973, Monographs in population biology.

[56]  Mark Kot,et al.  The effects of seasonality on discrete models of population growth , 1984 .

[57]  William W. Fox,et al.  An Exponential Surplus-Yield Model for Optimizing Exploited Fish Populations , 1970 .

[58]  Of Predation and Life , 1967 .

[59]  J. Swenson.  Compensatory Reproduction in an Introduced Mountain Goat Population in the Absaroka Mountains, Montana , 1985 .

[60]  L. Ellison,et al.  Shooting and compensatory mortality in tetraonids , 1991 .

[61]  N. Westwood,et al.  A Study of Wood-Pigeon Shooting: The Exploitation of a Natural Animal Population , 1974 .

[62]  B. Mitchell,et al.  FERTILITY AND BODY WEIGHT IN FEMALE RED DEER: A DENSITY-DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP , 1983 .

[63]  William E. Ricker.  Handbook of computations for biological statistics of fish populations , 1960 .

[64]  David R. Smith,et al.  Effect of Density-Dependent Harvest Rates on Inferences About Compensatory Mortality , 1992 .

[65]  J. Swenson,et al.  Infanticide caused by hunting of male bears , 1997, Nature.