Specialist predator in a multi-species prey community: boreal voles and weasels

Dissimilar vulnerabilities of different prey types and preferences of predators are factors likely to contribute to community dynamics. This may happen via differential individual properties of prey animals (e.g. vigilance, escape) or via habitat effects making hunting by a predator easier and more rewarding in some habitats, or both. Furthermore, community dynamics may be influenced by predator mediated apparent competition, in which an increase in one prey type has negative effects on another prey type indirectly via the shared predator. We summarize the current knowledge from the field in a model predator-prey system consisting of sympatric boreal vole species and their common specialist predator and review field studies using predator manipulation and studies on the responses of individuals in the laboratory and in outdoor enclosures. The vole species studied represent different prey types that are thought to have different vulnerabilities. Our observations on the main resident specialist predator, the least weasel (Mustela nivalis nivalis L.), show that it hunts according to prey availability and suitability of the hunting habitat. Prey voles respond to the presence of the predator behaviorally in various ways to avoid predation. We conclude that even if the least weasel is a specialized predator of small rodents it acts like a generalist predator within the small rodent guild and may facilitate the coexistence of prey species via predator switching. This may lead to interspecific synchrony between prey populations, which has often been observed. We suggest that the processes determining the community impact of predator-prey interactions are driven by the behavioral arms race between the predator and the prey, together with the habitat-dependent density of prey and net gain for the predator.