Chapter 1: Carnivores in human-influenced landscapes

mink (Mustela vison) (Mustelid Specialist Group 1986, Dunstone 1993). Domestic dogs
in India may compete with endangered Indian wolves (formerly Canis lupus pallipes,
now C. indica) for blackbuck (Antelope cervicapra) prey (Jhala 1993). Less commonly
a non-carnivore species may impact negatively on a carnivore. The island fox (Urocyon
littoralis) declined following the introduction of feral pigs in the Californian Channel
Islands because the pigs provided additional prey for the natural predator of the fox, the
golden eagle (Aguila chrysaetos). Eagle numbers increased as did predation on the fox
(Roemer et al. 2001).

The resilience of carnivores and concerns for cats

The preceding introductory review demonstrates how carnivores face a range of
anthropogenic threats. Habitat fragmentation and ranging behaviour both play an
important role in the level of exposure to these threats. However some carnivore species
are more resilient than others; some may even flourish in human-dominated landscapes.
The resilience of carnivores to anthropogenic threats depends on the ability of
individuals to adapt their behaviour to human-disturbed environments; demographic
compensation to mitigate effects of human-induced mortality; and dispersal to connect
fragmented populations (Weaver et al. 1996). For instance, in a simplified scenario
Weaver et al. (1996) demonstrated how, within the same landscape, the relative
resilience of three sympatric carnivores to disturbance, persecution and fragmentation,
may differ based on their foraging behaviour, fecundity and dispersal ability (illustrated
in Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 The resilience of three sympatric carnivores to disturbance, persecution and
fragmentation at the individual, population and meta-population level. Based on
Weaver et al. (1996)
Species Diet Reproduction Dispersal Resilience
Gray wolf Generalist omnivore High annual High dispersal ability HIGH
productivity
Puma Generalist carnivore; requires Biennial productivity Intermediate dispersal
specific habitat for stalking ↕
prey
Grizzly Omnivore; requires high quality Triennial productivity Females philopatric to LOW
bear forage at certain times of year maternal home range
Level individual population meta-population
Threat disturbance persecution fragmentation

In reality, mechanisms of resilience are complex, as shown in Figure 1.1.

Individual resilience (through behavioural flexibility) will influence both population and

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