Influences of Predator Cues on the Incidence of Ungulates, Mesopredators and Top Predators in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Northeastern China
Influences of Predator Cues on the Incidence of Ungulates, Mesopredators and Top Predators in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Northeastern China
Hamenya Mpemba1, Fan Yang1, Kirsty J. MacLeod2,3, Dusu Wen1, Yan Liu1,4 and Guangshun Jiang1,*
ABSTRACT
Top predators can affect the behaviour of prey species via lethal (direct kill) or non-lethal effects (i.e., through predation risk). For example, prey species may move from areas perceived as risky to safer spaces where predation risk is lower, which can have important consequences for investment in foraging, movement, and mating, and for the behaviour and habitat use of other species, such as mesopredators. These changes in prey and mesopredator behaviours are likely mediated by the presence of predator cues in the environment. Here, we test how different predator cues (visual and odor) from familiar and novel predators (brown bear and Amur tiger, respectively) influence ungulate, mesopredator, and top predator visitation rates to camera trap sites in a national nature reserve in China. The comparison of these predator types is of particular interest in this region as Amur tigers may shortly be reintroduced here. We found that visual but not odour cues significantly affected ungulate visitation rates: ungulates showed reduced visitation to sites with either a novel or familiar visual predator cue. When combined, mesopredators and top predators also showed a small reduction in visitation rates to tiger cue sites compared to bear cue sites, suggesting a possible novel predator effect. The generalisation and contextual importance of predator cues for prey and mesopredators have been little studied. Understanding how species respond to novel cues may help to determine extinction probabilities and overall plasticity in the face of change. This study is, therefore, an important step forward in understanding predator cue responses at the community level. This is also the first study to test the ecological function of Amur tiger cues in the wild environment and may serve as essential information in the rewilding process of captive Amur tiger plans.
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