Abstract
Determining the environmental factors that contribute to food resource partitioning or overlap is key to understanding the mechanisms of multispecies coexistence. Two ruminants, the Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and the sika deer (Cervus nippon), occur sympatrically in Japan, and interspecific interactions between them regarding food resource utilization remain unclear. In this study, we compared the diets of these two sympatric ungulates in two contrasting habitats: a montane forest and an alpine grassland in Mt. Asama. The montane forest provides both broad-leaved trees and graminoids of relatively small quantity, while the alpine grassland provides abundant graminoids. In the montane forest, the serow fed mainly on dicot leaves while the deer fed mainly on graminoids, suggesting partitioning of food resources. By contrast, in the alpine grassland, both species fed mainly on graminoids, resulting in dietary overlap. These results suggest that these two species can partition food resources in habitats with diverse food resources, while their diets tend to overlap in habitats with simple food resource composition. Their coexistence was seemingly facilitated by food resource partitioning in the montane forest and by sharing abundant food in the alpine grassland, suggesting that competition between them is unlikely at this location.
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Acknowledgements
Fieldwork was facilitated by the Kazankan of Komoro city government; K. Kanda and other staff members assisted us in the field. Yuko Fukue (NPO Earthworm), Tsuyoshi Takeshita (Komoro City Government), and the staff of the Tengu spa Asama helped us conduct field work. Haruko Watanabe, Nozomu Ogawa, Hiroaki Chikakiyo, Riki Ohuchi, and Akane Washida of Azabu University helped with fieldwork. We thank Gabe Yedid PhD, from Edanz Group (https://en-author-services.edanzgroup.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript. This work was supported by a research Project Grant awarded by the Cooperative Research Program of the Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University (Kyoto), and by the Pro Natura Foundation Japan’s 26th Pro Natura Fund (Tokyo).
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This work was supported by a research Project Grant awarded by the Cooperative Research Program of the Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University (Kyoto), and by the Pro Natura Foundation Japan’s 26th Pro Natura Fund (Tokyo).
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HT contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and microscopic analysis were performed by RY, AK, and ST. Statistical analysis was performed by HT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by HT and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Takada, H., Yano, R., Katsumata, A. et al. Diet compositions of two sympatric ungulates, the Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and the sika deer (Cervus nippon), in a montane forest and an alpine grassland of Mt. Asama, central Japan. Mamm Biol 101, 681–694 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00122-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00122-5