Evolution and Conservation Biology Research Group, University Complutense of Madrid, E-28049, Madrid, Spain.
General Directorate on Biodiversity, Ministry for the Ecological Transition, E-28071, Madrid, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 12;10(1):2430. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59387-4.
Competition for limiting natural resources generates complex networks of relationships between individuals, both at the intra- and interspecific levels, establishing hierarchical scenarios among different population groups. Within obligate scavengers, and especially in vultures, the coevolutionary mechanisms operating during carrion exploitation are highly specialized and determined in part by agonistic behavior resulting in intra-guild hierarchies. This paper revisits the behavioral and hierarchical organization within the guild of European vultures, on the basis of their agonistic activities during carrion exploitation. We used a dataset distilled from high-quality videorecordings of competitive interactions among the four European vulture species during feeding events. We found a despotic dominance gradient from the larger species to smaller ones, and from the adults to subadults and juveniles, following an age and body size-based linear pattern. The four studied species, and to some extent age classes, show despotic dominance and organization of their guild exerting differential selection to different parts of the carrion. The abundance of these parts could ultimately condition the level of agonistic interactions. We discuss the behavioral organization and the relationship of hierarchies according to the feeding behavior and prey selection, by comparing with other scavenger guilds.
竞争有限的自然资源会在个体内部和种间产生复杂的关系网络，在不同的种群之间建立等级场景。在专性食腐动物中，尤其是在秃鹫中，腐肉利用过程中的协同进化机制高度专业化，并部分由导致种内等级的竞争行为决定。本文基于秃鹫在腐肉利用过程中的竞争活动，重新审视了欧洲秃鹫群体内的行为和等级组织。我们使用了从高质量的秃鹫在进食时的竞争互动视频记录中提取的数据。我们发现了一个从较大物种到较小物种、从成年个体到亚成体和幼体的专制优势梯度，遵循基于年龄和体型的线性模式。四种研究的物种，以及在某种程度上的年龄类群，表现出专制优势，并对其群体进行组织，对腐肉的不同部位施加不同的选择压力。这些部位的丰度最终可能会影响竞争互动的水平。我们通过与其他食腐动物群体进行比较，根据觅食行为和猎物选择来讨论行为组织和等级关系。
