Meeting Abstract

64.3  Sunday, Jan. 6  Modern, Historical, and Future Carnivore Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Conservation and Climate Change YEAKEL, J D*; DOMINY, N J; KOCH, P L; Univ. of California, Santa Cruz; Univ. of California, Santa Cruz; Univ. of California, Santa Cruz jyeakel@pmc.ucsc.edu

Sub-Saharan African ecosystems are distinguished by relatively large numbers of co-occurring carnivores. Stable isotope analysis is poised to elucidate aspects of large-scale carnivore community structure through space and time, thereby allowing comparative relationships between species to be analyzed quantitatively. We aim to elucidate carnivore community interactions in modern and historical ecosystems in an effort to establish a baseline for understanding the flexibility of carnivore communities, and if they change predictably to specific climatic and anthropogenic forcings. Here we investigate resource partitioning by carnivores within a number of Sub-Saharan African sites. Our initial stable isotope results reveal top-level carnivore foraging strategies that fluctuate in response to Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) presence/absence in the Mpala Game Reserve, Kenya between 1985 and 2005. These data are then compared to a comprehensive isotopic examination of predators and co-occurring fauna collected by the 1909 Roosevelt/Rainey British East Africa Expedition. Differences in foraging strategies will likely be a function of environment shifts due to escalating human pressures during the twentieth century. Further investigations will be directed to compare modern East African communities to those in xeric southern African regions to assess – and in turn predict – the effects of climate change-induced aridification on modern top-level carnivore community interactions.