Effects on carrion consumption in a mammalian scavenger community when dominant species are excluded

Carrion is a valuable resource exploited not only by obligate scavengers but also by a wide variety of facultative scavengers. These species provide several important ecosystem services which can suffer if the scavenger community composition is altered, thus reducing the ecosystem provided. We studied the response of the Mediterranean facultative scavenger community to the exclusion of larger scavenger species (red fox Vulpes vulpes, European badger Meles meles, and wild boar Sus scrofa) using an exclusion fence permeable to small scavenger species (mainly Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon, common genet Genetta genetta, and stone marten Martes foina). The exclusion of dominant facultative scavengers led to a significant reduction in the amount of carrion consumed and an increase in carrion available for smaller species and decomposers, over a longer period of time. Although carrion consumption by the non-excluded species increased inside the exclusion area relative to the control area, it was insufficient to compensate for the carrion not eaten by the dominant scavengers. Of the small scavenger species, only the Egyptian mongoose significantly increased its carrion consumption in the exclusion area, and was the main beneficiary of the exclusion of dominant facultative scavengers. Therefore, altering the facultative scavenger community in Mediterranean woodlands can reduce the efficiency of small carcass removal and benefit other opportunistic species, such as the Egyptian mongoose, by increasing the carrion available to them. This interaction could have substantial implications for disease transmission, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem function.
This study has been possible as a result of the CGL2013-40975-R and RTI2018-099609-B-C22 projects, from the I + D + I National Plan funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and also of project (SBPLY-19-180501-000138) funded by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla la Mancha. Jorge Tobajas is the recipient of an FPI PhD scholarship (BES-2014-068987) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.