eprintid: 10075053 rev_number: 21 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/07/50/53 datestamp: 2019-05-30 11:40:42 lastmod: 2021-09-26 22:29:38 status_changed: 2019-05-30 11:40:42 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Woodroffe, R creators_name: Groom, R creators_name: McNutt, JW title: Hot dogs: High ambient temperatures impact reproductive success in a tropical carnivore ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C08 divisions: D09 divisions: F99 keywords: Lycaon, African wild dog, climate change, conservation, global warming, inter-birth interval, population dynamics, reproductive success, tropics, wildlife, Animals, Botswana, Canidae, Climate Change, Hot Temperature, Kenya, Reproduction, Tropical Climate, Zimbabwe note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. abstract: Climate change imposes an urgent need to recognise and conserve the species likely to be worst affected. However, while ecologists have mostly explored indirect effects of rising ambient temperatures on temperate and polar species, physiologists have predicted direct impacts on tropical species. The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), a tropical species, exhibits few of the traits typically used to predict climate change vulnerability. Nevertheless, we predicted that wild dog populations might be sensitive to weather conditions, because the species shows strongly seasonal reproduction across most of its geographical range. We explored associations between weather conditions, reproductive costs, and reproductive success, drawing on long-term wild dog monitoring data from sites in Botswana (20°S, 24 years), Kenya (0°N, 12 years), and Zimbabwe (20°S, 6 years). High ambient temperatures were associated with reduced foraging time, especially during the energetically costly pup-rearing period. Across all three sites, packs which reared pups at high ambient temperatures produced fewer recruits than did those rearing pups in cooler weather; at the non-seasonal Kenya site such packs also had longer inter-birth intervals. Over time, rising ambient temperatures at the (longest-monitored) Botswana site coincided with falling wild dog recruitment. Our findings suggest a direct impact of high ambient temperatures on African wild dog demography, indicating that this species, which is already globally endangered, may be highly vulnerable to climate change. This vulnerability would have been missed by simplistic trait-based assessments, highlighting the limitations of such assessments. Seasonal reproduction, which is less common at low latitudes than at higher latitudes, might be a useful indicator of climate change vulnerability among tropical species. date: 2017-11 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12719 full_text_type: other language: eng verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1405215 doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12719 lyricists_name: Woodroffe, Rosemary lyricists_id: RWOOD56 actors_name: Allington-Smith, Dominic actors_id: DAALL44 actors_role: owner full_text_status: restricted publication: Journal of Animal Ecology volume: 86 number: 6 pagerange: 1329-1338 event_location: England issn: 1365-2656 citation: Woodroffe, R; Groom, R; McNutt, JW; (2017) Hot dogs: High ambient temperatures impact reproductive success in a tropical carnivore. Journal of Animal Ecology , 86 (6) pp. 1329-1338. 10.1111/1365-2656.12719 <https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12719>. document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10075053/3/Woodroffe_Hot%20Dogs%20main%20text%2019Apr17%20FINAL.pdf