CARNIVORAN ECOLOGY: The Evolution and Function of Communities

The Carnivora comprises the most morphologically, trophically, and ecologically diverse mammalian branch of the tree of life. This book describes how and where carnivorans arose and radiated. Their morphological adaptations to diverse niches and the physiological mechanisms permit them to specialize on many foods, in many habitats. The sensory modalities and brain function of carnivorans are distinctive and important for living by predation. Carnivorans perform important community functions, including transporting nutrients, scavenging carrion, and making carrion available to other scavengers. They affect plants directly by dispersing seeds and improving germination. Some carnivorans have important facilitative interactions with other community members. Competition among carnivorans is a key mechanism that structures communities, mediated by body size, body shape, and other factors. The effects of carnivorans on prey numbers have long been studied; today the effects of risk of predation on prey behaviors, physiology, and reproduction are recognized as having comparable or greater effects on prey numbers than predation itself. Cascades are triggered by carnivoran presence and predation, and include effects resulting from predation, risk of predation, nutrient transport, and other mechanisms. Population processes in carnivorans differ modestly from those in non-carnivoran mammals, except that carnivorans occur at lower densities, have larger home ranges, disperse farther, and die of different causes. Carnivorans affect humans via a host of mechanisms; humans tend to exaggerate both positive and negative effects. Humans have had largely negative effects on carnivoran distributions and abundances, but local recoveries and restorations are occurring as well.