LARGE PREY FOR SMALL CUBS - ON CRUCIAL RESOURCES OF A BOREAL RED FOX POPULATION

Authors
Citation
Er. Lindstrom, LARGE PREY FOR SMALL CUBS - ON CRUCIAL RESOURCES OF A BOREAL RED FOX POPULATION, Ecography, 17(1), 1994, pp. 17-22
Citations number
32
Categorie Soggetti
Ecology
Journal title
ISSN journal
09067590
Volume
17
Issue
1
Year of publication
1994
Pages
17 - 22
Database
ISI
SICI code
0906-7590(1994)17:1<17:LPFSC->2.0.ZU;2-V
Abstract
Many studies of red fox Vulpes vulpes diet have indicated a higher fre quency of large prey in the diet of cubs at dens in relation to that o f adults. From time to time this finding has been questioned as an art ifact due to the different types of sampling. In this paper I suggest that the observations were correct and reflected optimal behaviour of a central place forager. I compared the diet of foxes by analyses of 1 12 cub seats collected at breeding dens and 168 adult seals collected during the same periods. The study was performed in a boreal environme nt, characterised by cyclically fluctuating vole populations. Accordin g to theory, the diets should converge when voles become plentiful. Du ring a year of low, but increasing, vole densities, a significantly hi gher proportion of large prey was found in the sample from cubs than f rom adults. This was not the case during the peak and the decline year , when the presumably easily available voles appeared frequently in th e seats of both cubs and adults. I argue that the availability of larg e prey during the first year of increasing vole densities might determ ine territory size and hence also average population density of foxes throughout the whole cycle in boreal foxes.