Ontogeny shapes individual dietary specialization in female European brown bears (Ursus arctos)
Individual dietary specialization, where individuals occupy a subset of a population's wider dietary niche, is a key factor determining a species resilience against environmental change. However, the ontogeny of individual specialization, as well as associated underlying social learning, genetic, and environmental drivers, remain poorly understood. Using a multigenerational dataset of female European brown bears (Ursus arctos) followed since birth, we discerned the relative contributions of environmental similarity, genetic heritability, maternal effects, and offspring social learning from the mother to individual specialization. Individual specialization accounted for 43% of phenotypic variation and spanned half a trophic position, with individual diets ranging from omnivorous to carnivorous. The main determinants of dietary specialization were social learning during rearing (13%), environmental similarity (5%), maternal effects (11%), and permanent between-individual effects (9%), whereas the contribution of genetic heritability (3%) was negligible. The trophic position of offspring closely resembled the trophic position of their mothers during the first 3-4 years of independence, but waned with increasing time since separation. Our study shows that social learning and maternal effects were more important for individual dietary specialization than environmental composition. We propose a tighter integration of social effects into studies of range expansion and habitat selection under global change.
Authors
- Nuria Selva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3389-201X)
- Agnieszka Sergiel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3455-4218)
- Thomas Mueller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9305-7716)
- Shane C. Frank (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8153-6656)
- Andreas Zedrosser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4417-3037)
- David M. Janz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1866-9787)
- Anne G. Hertel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7952-8243)
- Andreas Mulch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-7535)
- Keith A. Hobson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2525-1178)
- Jonas Kindberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1445-4524)
- Jörg Albrecht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9708-9413)
- Jannick Hansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1358-2965)
Institutions
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- Western University (CA)
- Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- University of South-Eastern Norway (NO)
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE)
- University of Saskatchewan (CA)
- Estación Biológica de Doñana (ES)
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (DE)
- Institute of Nature Conservation (PL)
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NO)
- Universidad de Huelva (ES)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- BOKU University (AT)
- Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54722-z
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.21
Funders
- National Research Centre
- European Commission
- Robert Bosch Stiftung
- Austrian Science Fund
- Naturvårdsverket
- Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
- Norges Forskningsråd
- Universidad de Huelva
- Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
- Miljødirektoratet
- Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum
- Nature
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas