Spatial relationships and mechanisms of coexistence between dominant and subordinate top predators

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Abstract

Most forest ecosystems contain a diverse community of top‐level predators. How these predator species interact, and how their interactions influence their spatial distribution is still poorly understood. Here we studied interactions among top predators in a guild of diurnal forest raptors in order to test the hypothesis that predation among competing predators (intraguild predation) significantly affects the spatial distribution of predator species, causing subordinate species to nest farther away from the dominant ones. The study analyzed a guild in southwestern Europe comprising three raptor species. For 8 years we studied the spatial distribution of used nests, breeding phenology, intraguild predation, territory occupancy, and nest‐builder species and subsequent nest‐user species. The subordinate species (sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus ) nested farther away from the dominant species (goshawk A. gentilis ), which preyed on sparrowhawks but not on buzzards Buteo buteo , and closer to buzzards, with which sparrowhawks do not share many common prey. This presumably reflects an effort to seek protection from goshawks. This potential positive effect of buzzards on sparrowhawks may be reciprocal, because buzzards benefit from old sparrowhawk nests, which buzzards used as a base for their nests, and from used sparrowhawk nests, from which buzzards stole prey. Buzzards occasionally occupied old goshawk nests. These results support our initial hypothesis that interspecific interactions within the raptor guild influence the spatial distribution of predator species in forest ecosystems, with intraguild predation as a key driver. We discuss several mechanisms that may promote the coexistence of subordinate and dominant predators and the spatial assembly of this raptor guild: spatial refuges, different breeding phenology, spatial avoidance, low territory occupancy between neighboring nesting territories, nest concealment and protection, and diet segregation.

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