Social and demographic effects of anthropogenic mortality: a test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis in the red wolf.

ABSTRACT: Whether anthropogenic mortality is additive or compensatory to natural mortality in animal populations has long been a question of theoretical and practical importance. Theoretically, under density-dependent conditions populations compensate for anthropogenic mortality through decreases in natural mortality and/or increases in productivity, but recent studies of large carnivores suggest that anthropogenic mortality can be fully additive to natural mortality and thereby constrain annual survival and population growth rate. Nevertheless, mechanisms underlying either compensatory or additive effects continue to be poorly understood. Using long-term data on a reintroduced population of the red wolf, we tested for evidence of additive vs. compensatory effects of anthropogenic mortality on annua

SUBMITTER: Sparkman AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3121739 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature