Abstract
How environmental conditions promote interspecific niche overlap and the occurrence of competition has long intrigued ecologists. In native ungulate assemblages, dietary partitioning based on interspecific differences in diet preferences has often been reported, but dietary overlap indicating competition is relatively rare. In Japan, native sika deer (Cervus nippon) have invaded high-elevation mountain areas and negatively affected the vegetation there, whereas native Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) have declined in these areas. However, diet-related interspecific relationships between these species remain unclear in these areas. We examined the diets of deer and serows, and the forage availability in a subalpine forest and an alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan. The subalpine forest provided both graminoids and coniferous trees, while the alpine desert provided a homogeneous supply of dicot leaves, and forage abundance of both habitats was quite limited. In the subalpine forest, deer fed mainly on graminoids while serows fed mainly on conifer leaves, suggesting partitioning of food resources. By contrast, in the alpine desert, both species fed mainly on dicot leaves, resulting in dietary overlap. We show for the first time that the diets of these two species overlap when shared food resources are limited, suggesting that food resource competition is likely to occur in the alpine desert. These results suggest that food resource competition can occur when both food resource diversity and abundance are limited, even among native species with different diet preferences.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Seiki Takatsuki from Azabu University for advising on fecal microscopic analysis and to Takuma Suzuki from Animal Life Solutions Co. Ltd., Konoka Aiba from Waseda University, Tomoya Kanno from Azabu University, and Eri Katsumata from the Mount Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi Prefecture Government, for their help with fieldwork. We thank the Yamanashi Regional Forestry Office, the Local Forestry Office (Fujiyoshida City and Narusawa Village), Ministry of the Environment of Japan, and Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan for allowing us to work in the study sites. We thank Clio Reid, PhD, from Edanz (https://jp.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.
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HT conceived the ideas and designed the methodology; MH, HT, and AW collected the data; MH and HT analyzed the data; HT and MH led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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All investigations were performed in accordance with the Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments, Mount Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi Prefecture Government (ECAE-01–2013-2019). The study complies with the Mammal Society of Japan guidelines regarding animal welfare and adheres to the ASAB/ABS guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioral research.
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13364_2023_683_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 1 Raw data of the fecal compositions of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) for each season in the subalpine forest and the alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018. Values of each food plant category indicate the number of points counted by fecal analysis using the point-frame method (XLSX 30 KB)
13364_2023_683_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 2 Seasonal changes in the biomass index of each food plant category in the subalpine forest and alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (XLSX 11 KB)
13364_2023_683_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 3 Seasonal changes in the fecal compositions (%) of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) in the subalpine forest of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018. “m” and “SD” indicate mean and standard deviation, respectively (XLSX 11 KB)
13364_2023_683_MOESM4_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 4 Generalized linear mixed model analyses of six dietary categories for feces of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) in the subalpine forest of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (XLSX 13 KB)
13364_2023_683_MOESM5_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 5 Seasonal changes in the fecal compositions (%) of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) in the alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018. “m” and “SD” indicate mean and standard deviation, respectively (XLSX 12 KB)
13364_2023_683_MOESM6_ESM.xlsx
Online Resource 6 Generalized linear mixed model analyses of six dietary categories for feces of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) in the alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (XLSX 12 KB)
Online Resource 7
Biplot of non-metric multi-dimensional scaling determined from fecal compositions of sika deer (Cervus nippon, yellow triangles) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus, green circles) for each season (A: spring, B: summer, C: autumn, D: winter) in the alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (PNG 3368 kb)
Online Resource 8
Biplot of non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) determined from fecal compositions of sika deer (Cervus nippon, yellow triangles) and Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus, green circles) for each season (A: spring, B: summer, C: autumn) in the subalpine forest of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (PNG 2777 kb)
Online Resource 9
Seasonal changes in the biomass index of food plants in the subalpine forest and the alpine desert of Mt. Fuji, central Japan, December 2017–November 2018 (data from present study), and in the montane forest and alpine grassland of Mt. Asama, central Japan, June 2015–December 2016 (data from Takada et al. 2021). Error bars indicate standard errors (PNG 748 kb)
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Hiruma, M., Takada, H., Washida, A. et al. Dietary partitioning and competition between sika deer and Japanese serows in high elevation habitats. Mamm Res 68, 305–315 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-023-00683-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-023-00683-5