Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction
Abstract While constrained by endogenous rhythms, morphology and ecology, animals may still exhibit flexible activity patterns in response to risk. Temporal avoidance of interspecific aggression can enable access to resources without spatial exclusion. Apex predators, including humans, can affect me...
Published in: | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 2023-05-15T15:51:25+02:00 Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction Haswell, Peter M. Kusak, Josip Jones, Katherine A. Hayward, Matt W. Bangor University 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology volume 74, issue 5 ISSN 0340-5443 1432-0762 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 2022-01-04T08:05:54Z Abstract While constrained by endogenous rhythms, morphology and ecology, animals may still exhibit flexible activity patterns in response to risk. Temporal avoidance of interspecific aggression can enable access to resources without spatial exclusion. Apex predators, including humans, can affect mesopredator activity patterns. Human context might also modify temporal interactions between predators. We explored activity patterns, nocturnality and the effects of human activity upon a guild of carnivores (grey wolf, Canis lupus Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx red fox, Vulpes vulpes ) using travel routes in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. Humans were diurnal, foxes nocturnal and large carnivores active during the night, immediately after sunrise and before sunset. Carnivore activity patterns overlapped greatly and to a similar extent for all pairings. Activity curves followed expectations based on interspecific killing, with activity peaks coinciding where body size differences were small (wolf and lynx) but not when they were intermediate (foxes to large carnivores). Carnivore activity, particularly fox, overlapped much less with that of diurnal humans. Foxes responded to higher large carnivore activity by being more nocturnal. Low light levels likely provide safer conditions by reducing the visual detectability of mesopredators. The nocturnal effect of large carnivores was however moderated and reduced by human activity. This could perhaps be due to temporal shielding or interference with risk cues. Subtle temporal avoidance and nocturnality may enable mesopredators to cope with interspecific aggression at shared spatial resources. Higher human activity moderated the effects of top-down temporal suppression which could consequently affect the trophic interactions of mesopredators. Significance statement Temporal partitioning can provide an important mechanism for spatial resource access and species coexistence. Our findings show that carnivores partition the use of shared travel routes in time, using the cover of darkness to travel safely where their suppressors (large carnivores) are more active. We however observed fox nocturnality to be flexible, with responses depending on the activity levels but also the composition of apex predators. High human activity modified the top-down temporal suppression of mesopredators by large carnivores. The use of time by predators can have demographic and trophic consequences. Prey accessibility and susceptibility can be temporally variable. As such, the ecosystem services and the ecological roles of predators may be affected by human time use as well as that of intraguild competitors. Temporal interactions should not be overlooked when evaluating human use and conservation priorities in protected areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx Springer Nature (via Crossref) Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 74 5 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Haswell, Peter M. Kusak, Josip Jones, Katherine A. Hayward, Matt W. Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Abstract While constrained by endogenous rhythms, morphology and ecology, animals may still exhibit flexible activity patterns in response to risk. Temporal avoidance of interspecific aggression can enable access to resources without spatial exclusion. Apex predators, including humans, can affect mesopredator activity patterns. Human context might also modify temporal interactions between predators. We explored activity patterns, nocturnality and the effects of human activity upon a guild of carnivores (grey wolf, Canis lupus Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx red fox, Vulpes vulpes ) using travel routes in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. Humans were diurnal, foxes nocturnal and large carnivores active during the night, immediately after sunrise and before sunset. Carnivore activity patterns overlapped greatly and to a similar extent for all pairings. Activity curves followed expectations based on interspecific killing, with activity peaks coinciding where body size differences were small (wolf and lynx) but not when they were intermediate (foxes to large carnivores). Carnivore activity, particularly fox, overlapped much less with that of diurnal humans. Foxes responded to higher large carnivore activity by being more nocturnal. Low light levels likely provide safer conditions by reducing the visual detectability of mesopredators. The nocturnal effect of large carnivores was however moderated and reduced by human activity. This could perhaps be due to temporal shielding or interference with risk cues. Subtle temporal avoidance and nocturnality may enable mesopredators to cope with interspecific aggression at shared spatial resources. Higher human activity moderated the effects of top-down temporal suppression which could consequently affect the trophic interactions of mesopredators. Significance statement Temporal partitioning can provide an important mechanism for spatial resource access and species coexistence. Our findings show that carnivores partition the use of shared travel routes in time, using the cover of darkness to travel safely where their suppressors (large carnivores) are more active. We however observed fox nocturnality to be flexible, with responses depending on the activity levels but also the composition of apex predators. High human activity modified the top-down temporal suppression of mesopredators by large carnivores. The use of time by predators can have demographic and trophic consequences. Prey accessibility and susceptibility can be temporally variable. As such, the ecosystem services and the ecological roles of predators may be affected by human time use as well as that of intraguild competitors. Temporal interactions should not be overlooked when evaluating human use and conservation priorities in protected areas. |
author2 |
Bangor University |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Haswell, Peter M. Kusak, Josip Jones, Katherine A. Hayward, Matt W. |
author_facet |
Haswell, Peter M. Kusak, Josip Jones, Katherine A. Hayward, Matt W. |
author_sort |
Haswell, Peter M. |
title |
Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
title_short |
Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
title_full |
Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
title_fullStr |
Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
title_sort |
fear of the dark? a mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2/fulltext.html |
genre |
Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Lynx Lynx lynx lynx |
op_source |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology volume 74, issue 5 ISSN 0340-5443 1432-0762 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02831-2 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
container_volume |
74 |
container_issue |
5 |
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1766386623752175616 |