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Small-scale spatial variability in the diet of pampas foxes (Pseudalopex gymnocercus) and human-induced changes in prey base

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Ecological Research

Abstract

Predators display functional responses to variation in prey availability that result in dietary distinction at different spatial scales. Such differentiation can be enhanced when human-induced changes in land use increase spatial heterogeneity in prey availability. This has been recorded for canids, but available information is skewed to regional scales. Further, though human activities have strongly altered neotropical biomes, knowledge about small-scale dietary differentiation of canids come mainly from holartic species. Thus, we quantified variability in the diet of a ubiquitous South American canid species (i.e., the pampas fox, Pseudalopex gymnocercus) over a relatively small area of grasslands in Argentina, comparing its diet at three close sampling sites varying in human disturbance. We found that small-scale dietary differentiation was influenced by human-induced habitat modifications, both directly by local subsidizing of introduced prey (e.g., livestock carrion and hares) and indirectly by altering the availability of native prey. Overall, pampas foxes seemed to be highly flexible in their trophic ecology, being able to cope with marked habitat alterations and likely benefiting from food cross-subsidizing from agricultural landscape to protected grassland relicts. This has implications for management and conservation purposes, and highlights the importance of quantifying variability in foraging behavior of carnivores over small spatial scales.

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Acknowledgments

We thank J. Farina, A. Canepuccia, L. Vega, S. Bo, D. Romero and L. Herrera for their help in prey determination, and the landowners and personnel of Estancia Medaland and Recreo Galan for their collaboration during field work. A. Canepuccia and P. Wallem made useful comments on early drafts of this paper. Comments by F. Courchamp and an anonymous reviewer greatly improved the original manuscript. AF was supported by grants from the Ministerio de Cultura y Educación de la Nación (Argentina) and DIPUC/VRAID of P. Universidad Católica de Chile, and the grant FONDAP-FONDECYT 1501-0001 to the Center of Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiveristy (Chile).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity, Departamento de Ecología, P. Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, P. O. Box 114-D, Santiago, CP 6513677, Chile

    Ariel A. Farias

  2. CONICET, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Marcelo J. Kittlein

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  1. Ariel A. Farias
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Correspondence to Ariel A. Farias.

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Farias, A.A., Kittlein, M.J. Small-scale spatial variability in the diet of pampas foxes (Pseudalopex gymnocercus) and human-induced changes in prey base. Ecol Res 23, 543–550 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-007-0407-7

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