Skip to main content
Log in

Prolonged prey suppression by carnivores — predator-removal experiments

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

The hypothesis that carnivores can significantly suppress prey populations after they collapse during drought was tested by predator-removal experiments. Low populations of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) responded with significantly accelerated growth where foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cats (Felis catus) were continually shot. Experiments in years of good pasture and poor were confirmatory. After only 14 months, the rabbits were well on their way to another eruption whereas untreated populations had remained low for 2.5 yrs until a second drought. These studies confirm the impact of carnivores found for low populations of cyclical prey but there was no measurable effect of predator-removal on the population declines in our studies. They were due to aridity and poor pastures. The concept of Environmentally Modulated Predation is presented. Only after the intervention of a widespread environmental event is such limiting predation possible. Drought is also the cause in arid Australia for dingoes (Canis familiaris dingo) preying seqenntially on rodents, rabbits and red kangaroos, while wildfire was the cause in temperate forests. Such environmental intervention may be more widespread than usually considered, triggering some apparent predator-prey cycles. The major factors limiting rabbits in inland Australia are: adequacy of green herbage during breeding, food scarcity during average summers, critical shortages of food and its low quality (including moisture content) during ‘crashes’ in drought, followed by limiting predation. Contrasting life-histories are one cause for the ultimate escape of rabbit populations from limiting predation as rabbits can breed continuously but carnivores seasonally only. Patchy predation and alternate prey may also play a part.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen DL (1979) Wolves of Minong: Their Vital Role in a Wild Community. Houghton & Mifflin, Boston, pp 499

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson M, Erlinge S (1977) Influence of predation on rodent populations. Oikos 29:591–597

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrew MH, Noble IR, Lange RT (1979) A non-destructive method for estimating the weight of forage of shrubs. Aust Rang J 1:225–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrewartha HG, Birch LC (1954) The Distribution and Abundance of Animals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago pp 782

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker-Gabb DJ (1984) The breeding ecology of twelve species of diurnal raptor in north-western Victoria. Aust Wildl Res 11:145–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Batzli GD, White RG, MacLean SF, Pitelka FA, Collier BD (1980) The herbivore-based trophic system. In: Brown J, Miller PC, Tieszen LL, Bunnell FL (eds), An Arctic Ecosystem. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsberg, Pa, pp 335–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Beasom SL (1974) Relationship between predator-removal and whitetail deer net productivity. J Wildl Manage 38:854–859

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooker MG, Ridpath MG (1980) The diet of the wedge-tailed eagle, Aquila audax, in Western Australia. Aust Wildl Res 7:433–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Catling PC (1988) Similarities and contrasts in the diet of foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and cats (Felis catus) relative to fluctuating prey populations and drought. Aust Wildl Res 15 (in press)

  • Cole FR, Batzli GD (1978) Influence of supplemental feeding on a vole population. J Mamm 59:809–819

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole FR, Batzli GD (1979) Nutrition and population dynamics of the prairic vole, M. ochrogaster, in central Illinois. J Anim Ecol 48:455–470

    Google Scholar 

  • Coman BJ (1973) The diet of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, L., in Victoria. Aust J Zool 21:391–401

    Google Scholar 

  • Coman BJ, Brunner H (1972) Food habits of the feral house cat in Victoria. J Wildl Manage 36:848–853

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke BD (1970) Factors which influence the numbers of rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.) in natural populations. MSc Thesis, University of Adelaide

  • Cooke BD (1974) Food and other resources of the wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.). PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide

  • Cooke BD (1981) Food and dynamics of rabbit populations in inland Australia. In: Myers K, MacInnes CD (eds) Proc World Lagomorph Conf, Univ of Guelph, pp 633–647

  • Cooke BD (1982a) Reduction of food intake and other physiological responses to a restriction of drinking water in captive, wild rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.). Aust Wildl Res 9:247–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke BD (1982b) A shortage of water in natural pastures as a factor limiting a population of rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in arid, north-eastern South Australia. Aust Wildl Res 9:465–476

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke BD (1983) Changes in the age-structure and size of populations of wild rabbits in South Australia, following the introduction of European rabbit fleas, Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale), as vectors of myxomatosis. Aust Wildl Res 10:105–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbett LK, Newsome AE (1987) The feeding ecology of the dingo. III. Dietary relationships with widely fluctuating prey populations in arid Australia: an hypothesis of alternation of predation. Oecologia 74:215–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Elton C (1942) Voles, Mice and Lemmings: Problems in Population Dynamics. Oxford University Press

  • Erlinge S, Goransson G, Hogstedt G, Jansson G, Liberg O, Loman J, Nilsson I, von Schantz T, Sulven M (1984) Can vertebrate predators regulate their prey? Amer Nat 123:125–133

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald BM (1977) Weasel predation on a cyclic populations of the montane vole (Microtus montanus) in California. J Anim Ecol 46:367–397

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford RG, Pitelka FA (1984) Resource limitation in populations of the California vole. Ecology 65:122–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox JF (1978) Forest fires and the snowshoe hare — Canada lynx cycle. Oecologia 31:349–374

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller WA (1969) Changes in numbers of three species of small rodent near Great Slave Lake, N.W.T. Canada, 1964–1967, and their significance to population theory. Ann Zool Fenn 6:133–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller WA, Stebbins LL, Dyke GR (1969) Overwintering of small mammals near Great Slave Lake, Northern Canada. Arctic 22:34–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibb J (1981) What determines the numbers of small herbivorous mammals. NZ J Ecol 4:73–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibb JA, Ward GD, Ward CP (1969) An experiment in the control of a sparse population of wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in New Zealand. NZ J Sci 12:590–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibb JA, Ward CP Ward GD (1978) Natural control of a population of rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), for ten years in the Kourarau enclosure. DSIR Bull 233. (New Zealand DSIR)

  • Harris S (1978) Age determination in the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) — an evaluation of technique efficiency as applied to a sample of suburban foxes. J Zool Lond 184:91–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Hornocker MG (1970) An analysis of mountain lion predation upon mule deer and elk in the Idaho Primitive Area. Wildl Monogr 21:1–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert SH (1984) Pseudo-replication and design of ecological field experiments. Ecol Monogr 54:187–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaksic FM, Soriguer RC (1981) Predation upon the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in mediterranean habitats of Chile and Spain: a comparative analysis. J Anim Ecol 50:269

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones E (1977) Ecology of the feral cat, Felis catus (L.) (Carnivora: Felidae), on Macquarie Is. Aust Wildl Res 4:249–262

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones E, Coman BJ (1982) Ecology of the feral cat, Felis catus (L.), in south-eastern Australia. II. Reproduction. Aust Wildl Res 9:111–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones R (1979) Predator-prey relationships with particular reference to vertebrates. biol Rev 54:73–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Keith LB (1974) Some features of population dynamics in mammals. Proc Int Congr Game Biol 11:17–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Keith LB (1983) Role of food in hare population cycles. Oikos 40:385–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Keith LB, Cary JR, Rongstad OJ, Brittingham M (1984) Demography and ecology of a declining snowshoe hare population. Wildl Monogr 90:1–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Kie JG, White M, Knowlton FK (1979) Effects of coyote predation on population dynamics of white-tailed deer. In: Drawe DL (ed) Proc 1st Welder Wildl Foundation Symp, Sinton, Texas, pp 65–82

  • Krebs CJ, DeLong KT (1965) A Microtus population with supplemental food. J Mamm 46:566–573

    Google Scholar 

  • Krebs CJ, Gilbert BS, Beutin S, Sinclair ARE, Smith JNM (1986) Population biology of snowshoe hares. I. Demography of food — suplemented populations in the Southern Yukon, 1976–84. J Anim Ecol 55:963–1282

    Google Scholar 

  • Lidicker WZ Jr (1973) Regulation of numbers in an island population of the Californian vole, a problem in community dynamics. Ecol Monogr 43:271–302

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd HG (1981) Biological observations on post-myxomatosis wild rabbit populations in Britain 1955–79. In: Myers K, MacInnes CD (eds), Proc World Lagomorph Conf Univ of Guelph, pp 623–628

  • Lloyd HG, Walton KC (1969) Rabbit survey in west Wales (1961–1967). Agriculture (Lond) 76:32–41

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLean SF, Fitzgerald BM, Pitelka FA (1974) Population cycles in arctic lemmings: winter reproduction and predation by weasels. Arct Alp Res 6:1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Mech LD (1966) The Wolves of Isle Royale. U.S. Nat Park Serv Faunal Series No 7. p 210

  • Myers K (1970) The rabbit in Australia. In: Proc Adv Study Inst Dynamics Numbers Popul (Oosterbeck, 1970) pp 478–506

  • Myers K, Parker BS (1975) Effect of severe drought on rabbit numbers and distribution in a refuge area in semi-arid northwest New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 2:103–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers K, Poole WE (1962) A study of the biology of the wild rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in confined populations. III Reproduction. Aust J Zool 10:225–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers K, Poole WE (1963) A study of the wild rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in confined populations. V. Population dynamics. CSIRO Wildl Res 8:166–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers K, Parker BS, Dunsmore JD (1975) Changes in numbers of rabbits and their burrows in a sub-alpine environment in south-eastern New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 2:121–133

    Google Scholar 

  • Mykytowycz R (1961) Social behaviour of an experimental colony of wild rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.). IV. Conclusion: Outbreak of myxomatosis, third breeding season, and starvation. CSIRO Wildl Res 6:142–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson ME, Mech LD (1981) Deer social organisation and wolf predation in northeastern Minnesota. Wildl Monogr 77: 1–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Newsome AE (1989) Large vertebrate pests of the mallee. In: Noble J (ed) Mediterranean Landscapes in Australia: Mallee Ecosystems and their Management. CSIRO Aust (in press)

  • Newsome AE, Corbett LK (1975) Outbreaks of rodents in semiarid and arid Australia: Causes, preventions and evolutionary considerations. In: Prakash I, Ghosh PK (eds), Rodents in Desert Environments, Junk, The Hague, pp 117–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Newsome AE, Catling PC, Corbett LK (1983) The diet of the dingo. II. Dietary and numerical relationships with fluctuating populations of prey in south-eastern Australia. Aust J Ecol 8:345–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I (1977) The population ecology of the wild rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in a Mediterranean climate in New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 4:171–205

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I (1982a) European rabbit (Australia). In: Davis DE (ed) CRC Handbook of Census Methods for Terrestrial Vertebrates, CRC Press, Florida, pp 136–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I (1982b) Dispersal of the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) at Urana in New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 9:427–441

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I, Libke JA (1985) Distribution of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) warrens in relation to soil types. Aust Wildl Res 12:387–405

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I, Wood DH (1985) Further observations of the use of warren entrances as an index of the numbers of rabbits. Aust Wildl Res 13:331–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Parer I, Conolly D, Sobey WR (1985) Myxomatosis: The effects of annual introductions of an immunizing strain and a highly virulent strain of myxoma virus into rabbit populations at Urana, New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 12:407–423

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson OP (1964) Carnivore — mouse predation: an example of its intensity and bioenergetics. J Mamm 45:177–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson OP (1966) The prey of carnivores during one cycle of mouse abundance. J Anim Ecol 35:217–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson OP (1971) Additional measurements of the impact of carnivores on California voles (Microtus californicus). J Mamm 52:41–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson OP (1985) Predation. In: Tamarin RH (ed) Biology of New World Microtus. Special Publ No 8 Am Soc. Mammalog, pp 535–566

  • Peterson RO (1977) Wolf ecology and prey relationships of Isle Royale. US Nat Parks Serv Sci Monogr Ser No. 7 p 210

  • Pitelka FA (1964) The nutrient-recovery hypothesis for arctic microtine cycles. I. Introduction. In: Crisp DJ (ed), Grazing in Terrestrial and Marine Environments, Blackwell, Oxford, pp 55–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitelka FA (1973) Cyclic pattern in lemming populations near Barrow, Alaska. Arc Inst N Am Tech Paper 25:199–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole WE (1960) Breeding in the wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.) in relation to the environment. CSIRO Wildl Res 5:21–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson BJ, Wood DH (1982) Experimental ecological studies on a sub-alpine rabbit population. I. Mortality factors acting on emergent kittens. Aust Wildl Res 9:443–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan GE, Croft JD (1974) Observations on the food of the fox, Vulpes vulpes (L.), in Kinchega National Park, Menindee, New South Wales. Aust Wildl Res 1:89–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaffer WM (1984) Stretching and folding in lynx for returns: evidence for a strange attractor. Am Nat 124:798–820

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaffer WM, Kot M (1986) Chaos in ecological systems: The coals that Newcastle forgot. TREE 1:58–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultz AM (1964) The nutrient-recovery hypothesis for arctic microtine cycles. II. Ecosystem variables in relation to arctic microtine cycles. In: Crisp DJ (ed) Grazing in Terrestrial and Marine Environments. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 57–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultz AM (1969) A study of an ecosystem: The artic tundra. In: Van Dyne G (ed) The Ecosystem Concept in Natural Resource Management. Academic Press, N.Y., pp 77–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Soriguer RC, Rogers PM (1981) The European wild rabbit in Spain. In: Myers K, MacInnes CD (eds) Proc World Lagomorph Conf Univ of Guelph, pp 600–613

  • Trostel K, Sinclair ARE, Walters CJ, Krebs CJ (1987) Can predation cause the 10-year hare cycle? Oecologia 74:185–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood DH (1980) The demography of a rabbit population in an arid region of New South Wales, Australia. J Anim Ecol 49:55–79

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Newsome, A.E., Parer, I. & Catling, P.C. Prolonged prey suppression by carnivores — predator-removal experiments. Oecologia 78, 458–467 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378734

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378734

Key words

Navigation