Fear of the dark? Contrasting impacts of humans vs lynx on diel activity of roe deer across Europe

• Published in: Journal of Animal Ecology
• Main Authors: Bonnot, Nadège, Couriot, Ophélie, Berger, A., Cagnacci, F., Ciuti, S., de Groeve, J., Gehr, B., Heurich, M., Kjellander, P., Kröschel, M., Morellet, N., Sönnichsen, L., Hewison, A.J. Mark
• Other Authors: Ecosystèmes forestiers (UR EFNO), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)-Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Unité de recherche Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage (CEFS), Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Leibniz Association, Fondazione Edmund Mach San Michele all'Adige, University College Dublin Dublin (UCD), Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Universität Zürich Zürich = University of Zurich (UZH), University of Freiburg Freiburg, Bavarian Forest National Park, Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg - Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Württemberg, ANR-16-CE02-0010-02; N N304172536; Mammal Research Institute - Polish Academy of Sciences; Leibniz-Institut fur Zoo-und Wildtierforschung; Marie Claire Cronstedts Stiftelse, Polish Mammal Research Institute - Polish Academy of Sciences; Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- und Wildtierforschung; Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Grant/Award Number: ANR-16-CE02-0010-02; Marie-Claire Cronstedts Stiftelse; Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Grant/Award Number: N N304172536, ANR-16-CE02-0010,Mov-It,Le mouvement des ongulés au sein de paysages hétérogènes: identification des processus comportementaux reliant les changements globaux aux performances démographiques et à la gestion spatialement explicite(2016)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: TEMPORAL PARTITIONING; URBANIZATION; EMPREINTE HUMAINE; NOCTURNALITE; NOCTURNALITY; HUMAN FOOTPRINT; LANDSCAPE OF FEAR; CREPUSCULARITY; DIURNALITY; ACCELEROMETERS; URBANISATION; PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTION; REPARTITION TEMPORELLE DE L'ACTIVITE; DIURNALITE; ACCELEROMETRES; CREPUSCULARITE; PAYSAGE DE LA PEUR; INTERACTION PREDATEURS PROIES; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Lynx; Lynx lynx lynx
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02609832; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02609832/document; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02609832/file/2020-Bonnot-et-al-Fear-of-the-dark-Journal-of-animal-ecology-version-auteur.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13161

International audience Humans, as super predators, can have strong effects on wildlife behaviour, including profound modifications of diel activity patterns. Subsequent to the return of large carnivores to human‐modified ecosystems, many prey species have adjusted their spatial behaviour to the contrasting landscapes of fear generated by both their natural predators and anthropogenic pressures. The effects of predation risk on temporal shifts in diel activity of prey, however, remain largely unexplored in human‐dominated landscapes. We investigated the influence of the density of lynx (Lynx lynx), a nocturnal predator, on the diel activity patterns of their main prey, the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), across a gradient of human disturbance and hunting at the European scale. Based on 11 million activity records from 431 individually GPS‐monitored roe deer in 12 populations within the EURODEER network (http://eurodeer.org), we investigated how lynx predation risk in combination with both lethal and non‐lethal human activities affected deer diurnality. We demonstrated marked plasticity in roe deer diel activity patterns in response to spatio‐temporal variations in risk, mostly due to human activities. In particular, roe deer decreased their level of diurnality by a factor of 1.37 when the background level of general human disturbance was high. Hunting exacerbated this effect, as during the hunting season deer switched most of their activity to nighttime and, to a lesser extent, to dawn, although this pattern varied noticeably in relation to lynx density. Indeed, in the presence of lynx, their main natural predator, roe deer were relatively more diurnal. Overall, our results revealed a strong influence of human activities and the presence of lynx on diel shifts in roe deer activity. In the context of the recovery of large carnivores across Europe, we provide important insights about the effects of predators on the behavioural responses of their prey in human‐dominated ecosystems. Modifications in the temporal ...