Disappearance of an ecosystem engineer, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), leads to density compensation and ecological release

Whitworth, A., Beirne, C., Basto, A., Flatt, E., Tobler, M., Powell, G., Terborgh, J. and Forsyth, A. (2022) Disappearance of an ecosystem engineer, the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), leads to density compensation and ecological release. Oecologia, 199(4), pp. 937-949. (doi: 10.1007/s00442-022-05233-5) (PMID:35963917) (PMCID:PMC9464176)

Abstract

Given the rate of biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need to understand community-level responses to extirpation events, with two prevailing hypotheses. On one hand, the loss of an apex predator leads to an increase in primary prey species, triggering a trophic cascade of other changes within the community, while density compensation and ecological release can occur because of reduced competition for resources and absence of direct aggression. White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari—WLP), a species that typically co-occurs with collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), undergo major population crashes—often taking 20 to 30-years for populations to recover. Using a temporally replicated camera trapping dataset, in both a pre- and post- WLP crash, we explore how WLP disappearance alters the structure of a Neotropical vertebrate community with findings indicative of density compensation. White-lipped peccary were the most frequently detected terrestrial mammal in the 2006–2007 pre-population crash period but were undetected during the 2019 post-crash survey. Panthera onca (jaguar) camera trap encounter rates declined by 63% following the WLP crash, while collared peccary, puma (Puma concolor), red-brocket deer (Mazama americana) and short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis) all displayed greater encounter rates (490%, 150%, 280%, and 500% respectively), and increased in rank-abundance. Absence of WLP was correlated with ecological release changes in habitat-use for six species, with the greatest increase in use in the preferred floodplain habitat of the WLP. Surprisingly, community-weighted mean trait distributions (body size, feeding guild and nocturnality) did not change, suggesting functional redundancy in diverse tropical mammal assemblages.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Bern (unite.ch), Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) and the Andes Amazon Fund.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Whitworth, Dr Andrew
• Authors: Whitworth, A., Beirne, C., Basto, A., Flatt, E., Tobler, M., Powell, G., Terborgh, J., and Forsyth, A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Oecologia
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 0029-8549
• ISSN (Online): 1432-1939
• Published Online: 13 August 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Oecologia 199(4): 937-949
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License