Hunting‐mediated predator facilitation and superadditive mortality in a European ungulate

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution
• Main Authors: Lukas F. Keller, Mirjam Pewsner, Benedikt Gehr, Kristina Vogt, Elizabeth J. Hofer, Andreas Ryser, Eric Vimercati
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: habitat selection; risk enhancement; step selection function; trophic interactions; Original Research; Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies; 570 Life sciences; biology; 590 Animals (Zoology); Ecology; Evolution; Behavior and Systematics; Nature and Landscape Conservation; envir; scipo; Lynx; Lynx lynx lynx
• Online Access: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/142345/1/Gehr_et_al-2017-Ecology_and_Evolution.pdf; https://doaj.org/article/9f0e404cc2774a23b097e189a59794cc; http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5756843; https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.3642; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29321855; https://core.ac.uk/display/132293746; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.3642; https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2768387749; https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-142345

Abstract Predator‐prey theory predicts that in the presence of multiple types of predators using a common prey, predator facilitation may result as a consequence of contrasting prey defense mechanisms, where reducing the risk from one predator increases the risk from the other. While predator facilitation is well established in natural predator‐prey systems, little attention has been paid to situations where human hunters compete with natural predators for the same prey. Here, we investigate hunting‐mediated predator facilitation in a hunter‐predator‐prey system. We found that hunter avoidance by roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) exposed them to increase predation risk by Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). Lynx responded by increasing their activity and predation on deer, providing evidence that superadditive hunting mortality may be occurring through predator facilitation. Our results reveal a new pathway through which human hunters, in their role as top predators, may affect species interactions at lower trophic levels and thus drive ecosystem processes.