Summary
Moose (Alces alces) and snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) appear to compete with each other. This was determined using the “natural experiments” of populations found in sympatry and allopatry on islands at Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, and manipulated exclosures. The population densities from these areas are fit to a series of competition models based upon different competitive mechanisms (Schoener 1974a), using non-linear regression techniques. A model of competition for food where the food can be separated into exclusively used and shared categories is found to predict observed densities of moose and hare best. Finally, the competition model's parameters (fraction of food shared and competition coefficients) are shown to agree with values predicted independently from a foraging model.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Abrams P (1980a) Are competition coefficients constant? Amer Nat 116:730–735
Abrams P (1980b) Some comments on measuring niche overlap. Ecology 61:44–49
Abrams P (1981a) Alternative methods of measuring competition applied to two Australian hermit crabs. Oecologia (Berlin) 51:233–239
Abrams P (1981b) Competition in an Indo-Pacific hermit crab community. Oecologia (Berlin) 51:240–249
Aldous CM, Aldous SE (1944) The snowshoe hare—serious enemy of forest plantations. Jour For 42:88–94
Ayala FJ (1971) Competition between species: frequency dependence. Science 171:820–824
Ayala FJ, Gilpin ME, Ehrenfeld JG (1973) Competition between species: theoretical models and experimental tests. Theor Pop Biol 4:331–356
Belovsky GE (1978) Diet optimization in a generalist herbivore: the moose. Theor Pop Biol 14:105–134
Belovsky GE (1981) Food plant selection by a generalist herbivore: the moose. Ecology 62:1020–1030
Belovsky GE (in press) Snowshoe hare optimal foraging and its implications for population dynamics. Theor Pop Biol
Belovsky GE (in prep) Herbivore body size and food competition
Belovsky GE, Jordan PA (1978) The time-energy budget of a moose. Theor Pop Biol 14:76–104
Bider JR (1961) An ecological study of the hare Lepus americanus. Can J Zool 39:81–103
Bittner SL, Rongstad OJ (1982) Snowshoe hares and allies (Lepus americanus and allies). In: Chapman JA, Feldhamer GA (eds) Wild mammals of North America. Baltimore, John Hopkins Univ Press, pp. 146–163
Bookhout TA (1965a) Feeding coactions between snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer in northern Michigan. Trans N Amer Wildl Conf and Nat Res 30:321–335
Bookhout TA (1965b) The snowshoe hare in upper Michigan: its biology and feeding coactions with white-tailed deer. Mich Dept Conserv Res and Develop Res 38, p 191
Brand CJ, Keith LB, Fischer CA (1976) Lynx responses to changing snowshoe hare densities in central Alberta. J Wildl Manage 40:416–428
Brown JH (1981) Two decades of homage to Santa Rosalia: towards a general theory of diversity. Amer Zool 21:877–888
Colwell RK, Futuyma DJ (1971) On the measurement of niche breadth and overlap. Ecology 52:566–576
Conway CR, Glass NR, Wilcox JC (1970) Fitting non-linear models to biological data by Marquardt's algorithm. Ecology 51:503–507
Crombie AC (1947) Interspecific competition. J Anim Ecol 16:44–73
Dodds DG (1960) Food competition and range relationships of moose and snowshoe hare in Newfoundland. J Wildl Manage 24:52–60
Gause GF (1934) The struggle for existence. Hafner, New York
Gilpin ME, Ayala FJ (1973) Global models of growth and competition. Proc Nat Acad Sci 70:3590–3593
Gilpin ME, Ayala FJ (1976) Schoener's model and Drosophila competition. Theor Pop Biol 9:12–14
Gilpin ME, Justice KE (1972) Reinterpretation of the invalidation of the principle of competitive exclusion. Nature 236:273–301
Golley FB (1961) Energy values of ecological materials. Ecology 42:581–584
Horn HS (1966) Measurement of “overlap” in comparative ecological studies. Amer Nat 100:419–424
Hough AF (1949) Deer and rabbit browsing and available winter forage in Allegheny hardwood forests. J Wildl Manage 13:135–141
Hurlbert SH (1978) The measurement of niche overlap and some relatives. Ecology 59:67–77
Johnson WJ (1970) Food habits of the red fox in Isle Royale National Park, Lake Superior. Am Midl Nat 84:568–572
Keith LB (1967) Habitat vacancy during a snowshoe hare decline. J Wildl Manage 31:828–832
Keith LB (1974) Some features of population dynamics in mammals. Proc Int Congr Game Biol No 11:17–58
Keith LB, Surrendi DC (1971) Effects of fire on a snowshoe hare population. J Wildl Manage 35:16–26
Keith LB, Windberg LA (1978) A demographic analysis of the snowshoe hare cycle. Wildl Monogr 58, p 78
Kleiber M (1961) The fire of life. Wiley, New York
Knorre EP (1959) Ecology of the moose. Trans of the Pechora-Illych State Game Preserve, U.S.S.R. GA Novikov (ed). (Translated from the Russian by the Canadian Bureau of Indian Affairs) USSR Komi Book Publishers, Syktyvkat
Krefting LW (1953) Effect of simulated snowshoe hare and deer damage on planted conifers in the Lake States. J Wildl Manage 17:487–494
Krefting LW, Hansen HL, Meyer MP (1970) Vegetation type map of Isle Royale National Park. Bureau of Sports, Fish Wildl
Levins R (1968) Evolution in changing environments. Princeton Univ Press, Princeton New Jersey
Lotka AJ (1932) The growth of mixed populations: two species competing for a common food supply. J Wash Acad Sci 22:461–469
Marquardt DW (1963) An algorithm for least-squares estimation of non-linear parameters. J Soc Ind App Math 11:431–441
May RM (1975) Some notes on estimating the competition matrix, α. Ecology 66:737–741
Mech LD (1966) The wolves of Isle Royale. US Nat Park Fauna 7
Mech LD (1974) A new profile of the wolf. Nat Hist 83:26–31
Menge BA, Sutherland JP (1976) Species diversity gradients: synthesis of the rates of predation, competition and temporal heterogeneity. Amer Nat 110:351–369
Moen A (1973) Wildlife ecology. WH Freeman Co, San Francisco
Mueller LD, Ayala FJ (1982) Dynamics of single-species population growth: experimental and statistical analysis. Theor Pop Biol 20:101–117
Neill WE (1974) The community matrix and interdependence of the competition coefficients. Amer Nat 108:399–408
Neyman J, Park T, Scott EL (1956) Struggle for existence. The Tribolium model: biological and statistical aspects. In: Proc 3rd Berkeley Symp on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, Vol IV. Univ Calif Press, Berkeley, p 41–79
Peek JM (1982) Elk (Cervus elaphus). In: Chapman JA, Feldhamer GA (eds) Wild mammals of North America. Baltimore, John Hopkins Univ Press, pp 851–861
Pianka ER (1973) The structure of lizard communities. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 3:53–74
Pianka ER (1974) Niche overlap and diffuse competition. Proc Nat Acad Sci 71:2141–2145
Pianka ER (1975) Competition and niche theory. In: May R (ed) Theoretical ecology. Blackwell, London, pp 114–141
Raduchel WJ (1970) Regression analysis program for economists. Tech Paper 7, Harvard Inst Econ Res. Harvard Univ, Cambridge Massachusetts
Rusch DH, Meslow EC, Doerr PD, Keith LB (1972) Response of great horned owl populations to changing prey densities. J Wildl Manage 36:282–296
Schoener TW (1970) Non-synchronous spatial overlap of lizards in patchy environments. Ecology 51:408–418
Schoener TW (1971) Theory of feeding strategies. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 2:369–403
Schoener TW (1973) Population growth limited by intraspecific competition for energy of time: some simple representations. Theor Pop Biol 4:56–84
Schoener TW (1974a) Competition and the form of habitat shift. Theor Pop Biol 6:265–307
Schoener TW (1974b) Some methods for calculating competition coefficients from resource-utilization spectra. Amer Nat 108:332–340
Schoener TW (1975) Presence and absence of habitat shift in some widespread lizard species. Ecol Monogr 45:233–258
Schoener TW (1976) Alternatives to Lotka-Volterra competition models of intermediate complexity. Theor Pop Biol 10:309–333
Schoener TW (1978) Effects of density-restricted food encounter on some single-level competition models. Theor Pop Biol 13:365–381
Schoener TW (1983) Field experiments on interspecific competition literature. Amer Nat 122:240–285
Seegmiller RF, Ohmart RD (1981) Ecological relationships of feral burros and desert bighorn sheep. Wildl Monogr 78, p 58
Smith-Gill SJ, Gill DE (1978) Curvilinearities in the competition equations: an experiment with Ranid tadpoles. Amer Nat 112:557–570
Telfer ES (1972) Forage yield and browse utilization on logged areas in New Brunswick. Can J For Res 2:346–350
Tilman D (1980) Resources: a graphical mechanistic approach to competition and predation. Amer Nat 116:362–393
Tilman D (1982) Resource competition and community structure. Princeton Univ Press, Princeton
Tilman D, Kilham SS, Kilham P (1982) Phytoplankton community ecology: the role of limiting nutrients. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 13:349–372
Vandermeer JH (1969) The competitive structure of communities: an experimental approach with protozoa. Ecology 50:362–371
Volterra V (1926) Variazioni e fluttuazioni del numero d'individui in specie animali conviventi. Mem Acad Lincei 2:31–113
Vozeh GE, Cumming HG (1961) A moose population census and winter browse survey in Gogoma District, Ontario. Ontario Dept Lands and Forests, Toronto (Unpubl ms) p 31
Werner EE (1977) Species packing and niche complementarity in three sunfishes. Amer Nat 111:553–578
Wilbur HM (1972) Competition, predation and the structure of the Ambystoma-Rana sylvatica community. Ecology 53:3–21
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Belovsky, G.E. Moose and snowshoe hare competition and a mechanistic explanation from foraging theory. Oecologia 61, 150–159 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00396753
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00396753