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Co-Adaptation Is Key to Coexisting with Large Carnivores Open
There is a pressing need to integrate large carnivore species into multi-use landscapes outside protected areas. However, an unclear understanding of coexistence hinders the realization of this goal. Here, we provide a comprehensive concep…
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Brain size predicts problem-solving ability in mammalian carnivores Open
Significance Intelligence presents evolutionary biology with one of its greatest challenges. It has long been thought that species with relatively large brains for their body size are more intelligent. However, despite decades of research,…
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Range contractions of the world's large carnivores Open
The majority of the world's terrestrial large carnivores have undergone substantial range contractions and many of these species are currently threatened with extinction. However, there has been little effort to fully quantify the extent o…
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Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection Open
Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human socie…
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Paws without claws? Ecological effects of large carnivores in anthropogenic landscapes Open
Large carnivores are frequently presented as saviours of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning through their creation of trophic cascades, an idea largely based on studies coming primarily out of relatively natural landscapes. However, in…
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Prey depletion as a threat to the world's large carnivores Open
Large terrestrial carnivores are an ecologically important, charismatic and highly endangered group of species. Here, we assess the importance of prey depletion as a driver of large carnivore endangerment globally using lists of prey speci…
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Spatio-temporal interactions facilitate large carnivore sympatry across a resource gradient Open
Species within a guild vary their use of time, space and resources, thereby enabling sympatry. As intra-guild competition intensifies, such behavioural adaptations may become prominent. We assessed mechanisms of facilitating sympatry among…
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Predator control should not be a shot in the dark Open
Livestock owners traditionally use various non‐lethal and lethal methods to protect their domestic animals from wild predators. However, many of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental evidence of their effecti…
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Enemies with benefits: integrating positive and negative interactions among terrestrial carnivores Open
Interactions among terrestrial carnivores involve a complex interplay of competition, predation and facilitation via carrion provisioning, and these negative and positive pathways may be closely linked. Here, we developed an integrative fr…
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Large-Scale Phylogenomic Analysis Reveals the Complex Evolutionary History of Rabies Virus in Multiple Carnivore Hosts Open
The natural evolution of rabies virus (RABV) provides a potent example of multiple host shifts and an important opportunity to determine the mechanisms that underpin viral emergence. Using 321 genome sequences spanning an unprecedented div…
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Fear of the human “super predator” far exceeds the fear of large carnivores in a model mesocarnivore Open
The fear (perceived predation risk) large carnivores inspire in mesocarnivores can affect ecosystem structure and function, and loss of the "landscape of fear" large carnivores create adds to concerns regarding the worldwide loss of large …
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Don't forget to look down – collaborative approaches to predator conservation Open
Finding effective ways of conserving large carnivores is widely recognised as a priority in conservation. However, there is disagreement about the most effective way to do this, with some favouring top‐down ‘command and control’ approaches…
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The ecology of human–carnivore coexistence Open
Significance The persistence of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes will become increasingly challenging as the human footprint expands. Here, we bring together long-term demographic and behavioral data on one of the worlds’ mos…
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Large carnivore expansion in Europe is associated with human population density and land cover changes Open
Aim The recent recovery of large carnivores in Europe has been explained as resulting from a decrease in human persecution driven by widespread rural land abandonment, paralleled by forest cover increase and the consequent increase in avai…
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Human disturbance increases trophic niche overlap in terrestrial carnivore communities Open
Significance Niche theory posits that species must limit overlap in the use of space, time, or resources to minimize competition. However, human disturbances are rapidly altering ecosystems with uncertain consequences for niche partitionin…
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Using camera trapping and hierarchical occupancy modelling to evaluate the spatial ecology of an African mammal community Open
Summary Emerging conservation paradigms have shifted from single to multi‐species approaches focused on sustaining biodiversity. Multi‐species hierarchical occupancy modelling provides a method for assessing biodiversity while accounting f…
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Space Use and Movement of a Neotropical Top Predator: The Endangered Jaguar Open
Accurately estimating home range and understanding movement behavior can provide important information on ecological processes. Advances in data collection and analysis have improved our ability to estimate home range and movement paramete…
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Brown bear attacks on humans: a worldwide perspective Open
The increasing trend of large carnivore attacks on humans not only raises human safety concerns but may also undermine large carnivore conservation efforts. Although rare, attacks by brown bears Ursus arctos are also on the rise and, altho…
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Spatial and temporal avoidance of risk within a large carnivore guild Open
Within a large carnivore guild, subordinate competitors (African wild dog, Lycaon pictus , and cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus ) might reduce the limiting effects of dominant competitors (lion, Panthera leo , and spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta )…
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Human disturbance has contrasting effects on niche partitioning within carnivore communities Open
Among species, coexistence is driven partly by the partitioning of available resources. The mechanisms of coexistence and competition among species have been a central topic within community ecology, with particular focus on mammalian carn…
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The gut microbiome influences host diet selection behavior Open
Significance The behavior of diet selection or diet choice can have wide-reaching implications, scaling from individual animals to ecological and evolutionary processes. Previous work in this area has largely ignored the potential for inte…
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Estimating large carnivore populations at global scale based on spatial predictions of density and distribution – Application to the jaguar (Panthera onca) Open
Broad scale population estimates of declining species are desired for conservation efforts. However, for many secretive species including large carnivores, such estimates are often difficult. Based on published density estimates obtained t…
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The critically endangered vaquita is not doomed to extinction by inbreeding depression Open
In cases of severe wildlife population decline, a key question is whether recovery efforts will be impeded by genetic factors, such as inbreeding depression. Decades of excess mortality from gillnet fishing have driven Mexico’s vaquita por…
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Impact of wild prey availability on livestock predation by snow leopards Open
An increasing proportion of the world's poor is rearing livestock today, and the global livestock population is growing. Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory killing is becoming an economic and conservation concern…
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Do wild ungulates experience higher stress with humans than with large carnivores? Open
Predation is a major selective pressure for prey; however, whether it evokes stronger stress response relative to anthropogenic factors in wild populations of animals is not clear. We studied the stress levels in red deer and roe deer in 6…
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Human Relationships with Domestic and Other Animals: One Health, One Welfare, One Biology Open
Excessive human population growth, uncontrolled use of natural resources, including deforestation, mining, wasteful systems, biodiversity reduction by agriculture, and damaging climate change affect the existence of all animals, including …
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Assessing global patterns in mammalian carnivore occupancy and richness by integrating local camera trap surveys Open
Aim Biodiversity loss is a major driver of ecosystem change, yet the ecological data required to detect and mitigate losses are often lacking. Recently, camera trap surveys have been suggested as a method for sampling local wildlife commun…
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Designing studies of predation risk for improved inference in carnivore-ungulate systems Open
Quantifying both the lethal and non-lethal (or “risk”) effects of predation has emerged as a major research focus in carnivore-ungulate systems. While numerous studies have examined predation risk and risk effects in recent decades, a lack…
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Genome of the Tasmanian tiger provides insights into the evolution and demography of an extinct marsupial carnivore Open
The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) was the largest carnivorous Australian marsupial to survive into the modern era. Despite last sharing a common ancestor with the eutherian canids ~160 million years ago, their ph…
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Estimating and forecasting spatial population dynamics of apex predators using transnational genetic monitoring Open
Significance We are experiencing the accelerated loss and reconfiguration of biological diversity. Meanwhile, those charged with natural resource management are struggling to meet the challenges of monitoring and managing wildlife populati…