Abstract

Local population density can strongly influence individual demographic rates and behavior, with important conse-quences for the population dynamics of a single species, as well as community-level dynamics and ecosystem processes. If there is increased intraspecific competition for food at higher densities, then predators may increase the amount of time they spend hunting and/or the distances over which they travel while hunting, which in turn may change which prey are most vulnerable to predation. These changes may be particularly important to the population dynamics of both introduced predators and their native prey, as invasive species often reach higher abundances in their invaded range compared to their native range, and invasive predators often have large effects on native prey populations (Sakai et al. 2001).

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