Spotted Hyenas Adjust Their Foraging Behavior in Response to Climate Change
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Spotted hyenas adjust their foraging behavior in response to climate change:
It is crucial to understand the mechanisms and extent to which animals in diverse ecosystems are resilient to climate change. Changes in the timing or amount of precipitation can alter vegetation growth and hence the distribution of migratory herbivores, such as the blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and plains zebras (Equus quagga) in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania, East Africa. Climate change may thus ultimately influence the location of profitable feeding areas for predators, such as spotted hyenas, who feed on these herbivores. A recent paper reveals that spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) can adjust their foraging behaviour to shifts in migratory prey presence in their territories that are linked to recent changes in pattern and amount of rainfall.
Scientists from the Leibniz-IZW and CEFE analysed data from a long-term project on three clans of spotted hyenas in the centre of the Serengeti National Park. The three clans have been monitored continuously from 1990 to 2019, on a near-daily basis. Weather data show that total annual rainfall substantially increased in the Serengeti over these three decades. Simultaneously, the presence of migratory herds in hyena clan territories essentially halved. "To assess how the hyenas responded to these changes in rainfall patterns and prey abundance in their territories, we focused on maternal den attendance -- the presence of lactating hyenas with entirely milk-dependent offspring at communal dens," says Morgane Gicquel, first author of the paper and doctoral student at the Leibniz-IZW.
The research team found that, over the course of a year, the probability of migratory herd presence in hyena clan territories increased with the amount of rainfall two months earlier, and that the probability of maternal den presence in clan territories also increased with that of migratory herd presence. As rainfall volume increased over the years, the presence of migratory herds in hyena clans decreased because the association between rainfall and herd presence became weaker. Surprisingly, maternal den attendance did not decrease throughout the entire study period and still matched periods of high prey abundance.
Journal Reference:Morgane Gicquel, Marion L. East, Heribert Hofer, Sarah Cubaynes, Sarah Benhaiem. Climate change does not decouple interactions between a centralplaceforaging predator and its migratory prey. Ecosphere, 2022; 13 (4)(DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4012)
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