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Spitzer R, Ericson M, Felton AM, Heim M, Raubenheimer D, Solberg EJ, Wam HK, Rolandsen CM. Camera collars reveal macronutrient balancing in free-ranging male moose during summer. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e70192. [PMID: 39157671 PMCID: PMC11329299 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.70192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2024] [Revised: 07/29/2024] [Accepted: 08/05/2024] [Indexed: 08/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Understanding how the nutritional properties of food resources drive foraging choices is important for the management and conservation of wildlife populations. For moose (Alces alces), recent experimental and observational studies during the winter have shown macronutrient balancing between available protein (AP) and highly metabolizable macronutrients (total non-structural carbohydrates [TNC] and lipids). Here, we combined the use of continuous-recording camera collars with plant nutrient analyses and forage availability measurements to obtain a detailed insight into the food and nutritional choices of three wild moose in Norway over a 5-day period in summer. We found that moose derived their macronutrient energy primarily from carbohydrates (74.2%), followed by protein (13.1%), and lipids (12.7%). Diets were dominated by deciduous tree browse (71%). Willows (Salix spp.) were selected for and constituted 51% of the average diet. Moose consumed 25 different food items during the study period of which 9 comprised 95% of the diet. Moose tightly regulated their intake of protein to highly metabolizable macronutrients (AP:TNC + lipids) to a ratio of 1:2.7 (0.37 ± 0.002SD). They did this by feeding on foods that most closely matched the target macronutrient ratio such as Salix spp., or by combining nutritionally imbalanced foods (complementary feeding) in a non-random manner that minimized deviations from the intake target. The observed patterns of macronutrient balancing aligned well with the findings of winter studies. Differential feeding on nutritionally balanced downy birch (Betula pubescens) leaves versus imbalanced twigs+leaves across moose individuals indicated that macronutrient balancing may occur on as fine a scale as foraging bites on a single plant species. Utilized forages generally met the suggested requirement thresholds for the minerals calcium, phosphorus, copper, molybdenum, and magnesium but tended to be low in sodium. Our findings offer new insights into the foraging behavior of a model species in ungulate nutritional ecology and contribute to informed decision-making in wildlife and forest management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Spitzer
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental StudiesSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesUmeåSweden
| | | | - Annika M. Felton
- Faculty of Forest Sciences, Southern Swedish Forest Research CentreSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesLommaSweden
| | - Morten Heim
- Norwegian Institute for Nature ResearchTrondheimNorway
| | - David Raubenheimer
- Charles Perkins Centre, and School of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of SydneyCamperdownNew South WalesAustralia
| | | | - Hilde K. Wam
- Department of Wildlife and RangelandsNIBIOÅsNorway
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2
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Chen S, Holyoak M, Liu H, Bao H, Ma Y, Dou H, Li G, Roberts NJ, Jiang G. Global warming responses of gut microbiota in moose (
Alces alces
) populations with different dispersal patterns. J Zool (1987) 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- S. Chen
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
| | - M. Holyoak
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy University of California Davis California USA
| | - H. Liu
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- College of Forestry Hainan University Haikou China
| | - H. Bao
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
| | - Y. Ma
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Key Lab of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - H. Dou
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection and Utilization Guangdong Academy of Forestry Guangzhou China
| | - G. Li
- State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - N. J. Roberts
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
| | - G. Jiang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
- Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center Northeast Forestry University Harbin China
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3
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Liu D, Li Z, Hou Z, Bao H, Luan X, Zhang P, Liang X, Gong S, Tian Y, Zhang D, She W, Yang F, Chen S, Nathan JR, Jiang G. Ecological relationships among habitat type, food nutrients, parasites and hormones in wild boar
Sus scrofa
during winter. WILDLIFE BIOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/wlb3.01020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Dongqi Liu
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Zhaoyue Li
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Zhijun Hou
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Heng Bao
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Xue Luan
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Ping Zhang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Xin Liang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Shuang Gong
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Yumiao Tian
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Da Zhang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Wen She
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Feifei Yang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Shiyu Chen
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - James Roberts Nathan
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
| | - Guangshun Jiang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry Univ. Harbin China
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4
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Chen S, Holyoak M, Liu H, Bao H, Ma Y, Dou H, Jiang G. Effects of spatially heterogeneous warming on gut microbiota, nutrition and gene flow of a heat-sensitive ungulate population. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 806:150537. [PMID: 34844317 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2021] [Revised: 09/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Effects of climate warming on trophic cascades are increasingly reported for large herbivores occupying northern latitudes. During the last 40 years, moose (Alces alces) in northeast China have lost nearly half of their historical distribution through their habitat shifting northwards. There are many possible causes of bottom-up and top-down effects of temperature and for moose in northeast China they are poorly understood. Of particular relevance are the effects of extrinsic environmental factors on gene flow, nutritional adaptions, and gut microbiota that occur as moose populations retreat northwards. We combined molecular biology, nutritional ecology and metagenomics to gain deeper mechanistic insights into the effects of temperature on moose populations. In this study, we revealed that the direction and intensity of gene flow is consistent with global warming driving retreats of moose populations. We interpret this as evidence for the northward movement of moose populations, with cooler northern populations receiving more immigrants and warmer southern populations supplying emigrants. Comparison across latitudes showed that warmer late spring temperatures were associated with plant community composition and facilitated related changes in moose protein and carbohydrate intake through altering forage availability, forage quality and diet composition. Furthermore, these nutrient shifts were accompanied by changes in gut microbial composition and functional pathways related to nutrient metabolism. This study provided insights into mechanisms driving effects of spatial heterogeneous warming on genetic, nutritional and physiological adaptions related to key demographic rates and patterns of survival of heat-sensitive ungulates along a latitude gradient. Understanding such changes helps to identify key habitat areas and plant species to ensure accurate assessment of population status and targeted management of moose populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiyu Chen
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
| | - Marcel Holyoak
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Hui Liu
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
| | - Heng Bao
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
| | - Yingjie Ma
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; Key Lab of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1-5 Beichenxi Road, Chaoyang, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Hongliang Dou
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection and Utilization, Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou 510520, China
| | - Guangshun Jiang
- Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
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5
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Ma Y, Wang M, Wei F, Nie Y. Geographic distributions shape the functional traits in a large mammalian family. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:13175-13185. [PMID: 34646461 PMCID: PMC8495830 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Traits of organisms are shaped by their living environments and also determined in part by their phylogenetic relationships. For example, phylogenetic relationships often affect the geographic distributions of animals and cause variation in their living environments, which usually play key roles in the life history and determine the functional traits of species. As an ancient family of mammals, bears widely distribute and have evolved some specific strategies for survival and reproduction during their long-term evolutionary histories. Many studies on the ecology of bears have been conducted in recent decades, but few have focused on the relationships between their geographic distributions and ecological adaptations. Here, using bears as a model system, we collected and reanalyzed data from the available literatures to explore how geographic distributions and phylogenetic relationships shape the functional traits of animals. We found a positive relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and geographic distributions, with bears distributed in adjacent areas applying more similar strategies to survive and reproduce: (a) Bears living at high latitudes consumed a higher proportion of vertebrates, which may provide more fat for adaptation to low temperatures, and (b) their reproduction rhythms follow fluctuations in seasonal forage availability and quality, in which bears reach mating status from March to May and give birth in approximately November or later.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingjie Ma
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation BiologyInstitute of ZoologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | - Meng Wang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation BiologyInstitute of ZoologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | - Fuwen Wei
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation BiologyInstitute of ZoologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and GeneticsChinese Academy of SciencesKunmingChina
| | - Yonggang Nie
- Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation BiologyInstitute of ZoologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and GeneticsChinese Academy of SciencesKunmingChina
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6
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Felton AM, Wam HK, Felton A, Simpson SJ, Stolter C, Hedwall P, Malmsten J, Eriksson T, Tigabo M, Raubenheimer D. Macronutrient balancing in free-ranging populations of moose. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:11223-11240. [PMID: 34429914 PMCID: PMC8366896 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 06/22/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
At northern latitudes, large spatial and temporal variation in the nutritional composition of available foods poses challenges to wild herbivores trying to satisfy their nutrient requirements. Studies conducted in mostly captive settings have shown that animals from a variety of taxonomic groups deal with this challenge by adjusting the amounts and proportions of available food combinations to achieve a target nutrient balance. In this study, we used proportions-based nutritional geometry to analyze the nutritional composition of rumen samples collected in winter from 481 moose (Alces alces) in southern Sweden and examine whether free-ranging moose show comparable patterns of nutrient balancing. Our main hypothesis was that wild moose actively regulate their rumen nutrient composition to offset ecologically imposed variation in the nutritional composition of available foods. To test this, we assessed the macronutritional composition (protein, carbohydrates, and lipids) of rumen contents and commonly eaten foods, including supplementary feed, across populations with contrasting winter diets, spanning an area of approximately 10,000 km2. Our results suggest that moose balanced the macronutrient composition of their rumen, with the rumen contents having consistently similar proportional relationship between protein and nonstructural carbohydrates, despite differences in available (and eaten) foods. Furthermore, we found that rumen macronutrient balance was tightly related to ingested levels of dietary fiber (cellulose and hemicellulose), such that the greater the fiber content, the less protein was present in the rumen compared with nonstructural carbohydrates. Our results also suggest that moose benefit from access to a greater variety of trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses, which provides them with a larger nutritional space to maneuver within. Our findings provide novel theoretical insights into a model species for ungulate nutritional ecology, while also generating data of direct relevance to wildlife and forest management, such as silvicultural or supplementary feeding practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika M. Felton
- Southern Swedish Forest Research CentreSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesAlnarpSweden
| | - Hilde K. Wam
- Division of Forestry and Forest ResourcesNIBIOÅsNorway
| | - Adam Felton
- Southern Swedish Forest Research CentreSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesAlnarpSweden
| | - Stephen J. Simpson
- Charles Perkins Centre, and School of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of SydneyCamperdownNSWAustralia
| | - Caroline Stolter
- Department of Animal Ecology and ConservationInstitute of ZoologyUniversity of HamburgHamburgGermany
| | - Per‐Ola Hedwall
- Southern Swedish Forest Research CentreSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesAlnarpSweden
| | - Jonas Malmsten
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental StudiesSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)UmeåSweden
| | - Torsten Eriksson
- Department of Animal Nutrition and ManagementSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesUppsalaSweden
| | - Mulualem Tigabo
- Southern Swedish Forest Research CentreSwedish University of Agricultural SciencesAlnarpSweden
| | - David Raubenheimer
- Charles Perkins Centre, and School of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of SydneyCamperdownNSWAustralia
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