Do apex predators need to regulate prey populations to be a right conservation target?

Some authors consider that apex predators that cannot regulate prey populations are not a complete conservation target. We argue that this image originates in northern latitudes where cultural models of wildness have developed further due to contingent historical and social reasons. In southern European ecosystems apex predators usually cannot regulate prey populations, acting as scavengers or vegetarian. As a consequence, prey are often regulated by bottom-up mechanisms, such as density-dependent disease or food availability. This should not be seen as a downgrading of predator functionality in ecosystems, but just as another type of ecosystem organization. Actually, the species that we now call apex predators were part of much richer predator communities in the Pleistocene, where they behaved as mesopredators (wolf) or already had vegetarian diets (southern brown bear). Species functionality shows spatiotemporal heterogeneity, and this variability needs to be taken into account and incorporated to conservation plans on a case by case basis, to improve their success rates and human-wildlife coexistence.

Automated summary

In southern European ecosystems, apex predators usually cannot regulate prey populations, and instead, prey are often controlled by bottom-up mechanisms such as density-dependent disease or food availability. This highlights the importance of understanding the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of species functionality to improve conservation plans.