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Title
  • en Potential resource competition between an invasive mammal and native birds: overlap in tree cavity preferences of feral raccoons and Ural owls
Creator
    • en Kobayashi, Fumiya
    • en Toyama, Masahiro
Accessrights open access
Rights
  • en © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013, / Published online: 21 November 2013, "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".
Subject
  • Other en Alien species
  • Other en Habitat selection
  • Other en Inter-class competition
  • Other en Tree hollow
  • NDC 468
Description
  • Abstract en Invasive mammals include good tree climbers that use tree cavities for resting and nesting. Tree cavities are important but limited resources in most forests; thus, some invasive mammals can be serious competitors for native cavity-using species, especially cavity-nesting birds. Despite the potential impact, such inter-class competition has rarely been considered. We examined the possibility of resource competition for tree cavities between the invasive raccoon Procyon lotor and the native Ural owl Strix uralensis. Both species are nocturnal and use tree cavities during daytime. We assessed an overlap in cavity use for both species as an indication of potential competition by monitoring 341 cavities during their breeding season in a natural park in Hokkaido, Japan. Of 341 potentially available cavities, raccoons and Ural owls used 37 and 32, respectively. The characteristics of 58 cavities used by raccoons or owls were compared to 49 random cavities to determine if they selected cavities with certain characteristics. As predicted from a large amount of tree cavities and a low raccoon density in this managed forest, we did not find direct evidence of competition, such as physical interaction, intrusion to cavities, or habitat segregation. Cavity types used by both species overlapped considerably in terms of height, entrance size, depth, and other characteristics: their habitats were widely overlapped. Further, in four cavities, one species was replaced by the other. Given the similar habitat requirements, the invasive raccoon could be a potential competitor for Ural owl when raccoon density increases and/or cavity availability decreases, which is the case for many forests in Japan. This study suggests that potential threats of resource competition among not only closely but also distantly related taxa should be taken into consideration when studying the impacts of invasive species.
Publisher en Springer
Date
    Issued2014-07
Language
  • eng
Resource Type journal article
Version Type AM
Identifier HDL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/57419
Relation
  • isVersionOf DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-013-0583-z
Journal
    • PISSN 1387-3547
    • NCID AA11384974
      • en Biological Invasions
      • Volume Number16 Issue Number7 Page Start1453 Page End1464
File
Oaidate 2023-07-26