Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators
Where direct killing is rare and niche overlap low, sympatric carnivores may appear to coexist without conflict. Interference interactions, harassment and injury from larger carnivores may still pose a risk to smaller mesopredators. Foraging theory suggests that animals should adjust their behaviour...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6018578 2023-05-15T15:50:41+02:00 Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators Haswell, Peter M. Jones, Katherine A. Kusak, Josip Hayward, Matt W. 2018-04-13 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018578/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29654482 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 en eng Springer Berlin Heidelberg http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018578/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29654482 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 © The Author(s) 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. CC-BY Highlighted Student Research Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 2018-07-15T00:12:16Z Where direct killing is rare and niche overlap low, sympatric carnivores may appear to coexist without conflict. Interference interactions, harassment and injury from larger carnivores may still pose a risk to smaller mesopredators. Foraging theory suggests that animals should adjust their behaviour accordingly to optimise foraging efficiency and overall fitness, trading off harvest rate with costs to fitness. The foraging behaviour of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, was studied with automated cameras and a repeated measures giving-up density (GUD) experiment where olfactory risk cues were manipulated. In Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, red foxes increased GUDs by 34% and quitting harvest rates by 29% in response to wolf urine. In addition to leaving more food behind, foxes also responded to wolf urine by spending less time visiting food patches each day and altering their behaviour in order to compensate for the increased risk when foraging from patches. Thus, red foxes utilised olfaction to assess risk and experienced foraging costs due to the presence of a cue from gray wolves, Canis lupus. This study identifies behavioural mechanisms which may enable competing predators to coexist, and highlights the potential for additional ecosystem service pathways arising from the behaviour of large carnivores. Given the vulnerability of large carnivores to anthropogenic disturbance, a growing human population and intensifying resource consumption, it becomes increasingly important to understand ecological processes so that land can be managed appropriately. Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) Oecologia 187 3 573 583 |
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Highlighted Student Research Haswell, Peter M. Jones, Katherine A. Kusak, Josip Hayward, Matt W. Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
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Where direct killing is rare and niche overlap low, sympatric carnivores may appear to coexist without conflict. Interference interactions, harassment and injury from larger carnivores may still pose a risk to smaller mesopredators. Foraging theory suggests that animals should adjust their behaviour accordingly to optimise foraging efficiency and overall fitness, trading off harvest rate with costs to fitness. The foraging behaviour of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, was studied with automated cameras and a repeated measures giving-up density (GUD) experiment where olfactory risk cues were manipulated. In Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, red foxes increased GUDs by 34% and quitting harvest rates by 29% in response to wolf urine. In addition to leaving more food behind, foxes also responded to wolf urine by spending less time visiting food patches each day and altering their behaviour in order to compensate for the increased risk when foraging from patches. Thus, red foxes utilised olfaction to assess risk and experienced foraging costs due to the presence of a cue from gray wolves, Canis lupus. This study identifies behavioural mechanisms which may enable competing predators to coexist, and highlights the potential for additional ecosystem service pathways arising from the behaviour of large carnivores. Given the vulnerability of large carnivores to anthropogenic disturbance, a growing human population and intensifying resource consumption, it becomes increasingly important to understand ecological processes so that land can be managed appropriately. |
format |
Text |
author |
Haswell, Peter M. Jones, Katherine A. Kusak, Josip Hayward, Matt W. |
author_facet |
Haswell, Peter M. Jones, Katherine A. Kusak, Josip Hayward, Matt W. |
author_sort |
Haswell, Peter M. |
title |
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
title_short |
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
title_full |
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
title_fullStr |
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
title_sort |
fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators |
publisher |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018578/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29654482 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018578/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29654482 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4133-3 |
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Oecologia |
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187 |
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583 |
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