Feast to famine: Sympatric predators respond differently to seasonal prey scarcity on the low Arctic tundra.

ABSTRACT: Resource fluctuation is a major driver of animal movement, influencing strategic choices such as residency vs nomadism, or social dynamics. The Arctic tundra is characterized by strong seasonality: Resources are abundant during the short summers but scarce in winters. Therefore, expansion of boreal-forest species onto the tundra raises questions on how they cope with winter-resource scarcity. We examined a recent incursion by red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) onto the coastal tundra of northern Manitoba, an area historically occupied by Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) that lacks access to anthropogenic foods, and compared seasonal shifts in space use of the two species. We used 4 years of telemetry data following 8 red foxes and 11 Arctic foxes to test the hypothesis that the movement

SUBMITTER: Warret Rodrigues C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10041551 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature