the 'Dhole'

[Stanley Friesen]

At 12:38 AM 7/3/01 -0400, X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:
>Just briefly again,... yes.  Or, mostly yes.
>- I should have written "Wolves as a general rule and apparently especially
>in southern Asia are found in MORE open habitats than the dhole."

This sounds like competitive exclusion, where two ecologically similar
species partition the available space on the basis of *slight* differences
in efficiency in different environments.

>- A quick search on the web will return many, many repetitions of the
>statement that "Wolves do not live in" or "are seldom found in arid deserts
>or tropical forests."

Arid deserts they certainly tend to avoid, probably because they require
more resources than deserts readily provide.  Their absence from tropical
forests may be due more to competitive exclusion - there are generally more
species of carnivore in rain forests to offer such competition.

There is a general pattern - species tend to be limited in the direction of
the harsher environment by intrinsic ability, and on the in the direction
of richer environments by competitive exclusion.  It shows up repeatedly in
manipulation experiments.  It certainly was the case with the coyote, which
expanded into the former range of the wolf after we humans extirpated it in
many areas.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net