Department of Applied
Biology, Estacio n Biolo gica
de Donaana, CSIC, Apdo.
1056,
41080 Sevilla, Spain.
E-mail: mdelibes@ebd.csic.es
2
Instituto de Investigacio n
en Recursos Cinege ticos,
CSIC- UCLM, Calle Libertad, 7
A,
13004 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Gundersen et al. (2001, Source-sink dynamics: how sinks affect demography of sources.
Ecol. Lett., 4, 1421.) suggested that sinks can severely affect the demography of
populations in source habitats. We propose this is a common result when animals lack
cues associated with reduced fitness inside sinks and consequently select habitat
inappropriately. These attractive sinks can result either from undetected risks of
mortality (as in the experiment of Gundersen et al. 2001) or from undetected poor
breeding probabilities (due to bioaccumulation of pesticides, for instance). Thus,
individual habitat choice is a key process underlying sourcesink dynamics.
Keywords
BIOSKETCH
Miguel Delibes conducts research on the ecology and conservation of mammals, mainly carnivores. The challenge of
conserving endangered carnivores in reserves surrounded by
mortality sinks generated his interest on sourcesink dynamics.