Interactive effects of obligate scavengers and scavenger community richness on lagomorph carcass consumption patterns

摘要

Carrion consumption patterns in vertebrate scavenger\udcommunities may be influenced by several interacting\udfactors. We assessed the effects of the number of scavenger species and the presence of obligate scavengers (vultures) on carcass detection and consumption times, and\udthe structure (nestedness) of the scavenger assemblage\udby exploring consumption patterns of lagomorph carcasses provided experimentally. Carcass detection and\udconsumption times were strongly inversely related to\udvulture presence, whereas scavenger richness had a low\udcontribution, except when interacting with vulture presence. However, none of the scavenger communities\udpresented a nested pattern, perhaps because of the small\udsize of lagomorphs, which prevents large numbers of\udscavengers and interspecific interactions occurring at\udone carcass. Our results suggest that scavenger species richness, especially the presence of vultures, increases\udscavenging efficiency