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Inter-specific synchrony of two contrasting ungulates: wild boar (Sus scrofa) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)

  • Population Ecology
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Abstract

Very few studies on ungulates address issues of inter-specific synchrony in population responses to environmental variation such as climate. Depending on whether annual variation in performance of ungulate populations is driven by direct or indirect (trophic) interactions, very different predictions regarding the pattern of inter-specific synchrony can be derived. We compared annual autumn body mass variation in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa) from Poland over the period 1982–2002, and related this to variation in winter and summer climate and plant phenological development [the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from satellites]. Roe deer fawns (∼1.3 kg increase from year 1982 to 2002) and yearlings both increased markedly in mass over years. There was also an increase for wild boar mass over years (∼4.2 kg increase for piglets from 1982 to 2002). Despite our failure to link annual body mass to spring or winter conditions or the NDVI, the body mass of roe deer and wild boar fluctuated in synchrony. As this was a field roe deer population, and since wild boar is an omnivore, we suggest this may be linked to annual variation and trends in crop structure (mainly rye). We urge future studies to take advantage of studying multiple species in order to gain further insight into processes of how climate affect ungulate populations.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Research Council of Norway to A.M. (YFF Project). We are grateful to W. Bresiński, R. Kamieniarz and many of local hunters for help in collecting field data, J. Karg for assistance with obtaining temperature data. P.T.’s sabbatical at Monks Wood was funded by the Foundation for Polish Science. We greatly appreciated the comments of Jean-Michel Gaillard, Nicolas Morellet, and one anonymous referee to previous drafts of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway

    Atle Mysterud, Nathalie Pettorelli & Nils C. Stenseth

  2. CEH Monks Wood, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE28 2LS, UK

    Piotr Tryjanowski

  3. Department of Behavioural Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznań, Poland

    Piotr Tryjanowski

  4. Polish Hunting Association, Research Station, 64-020, Czempin, Poland

    Marek Panek

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  1. Atle Mysterud
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  2. Piotr Tryjanowski
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  4. Nathalie Pettorelli
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  5. Nils C. Stenseth
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Correspondence to Atle Mysterud.

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Communicated by Jean-Michel Gaillard.

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Mysterud, A., Tryjanowski, P., Panek, M. et al. Inter-specific synchrony of two contrasting ungulates: wild boar (Sus scrofa) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Oecologia 151, 232–239 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0584-z

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