Altered disturbance regimes, increasing atmospheric CO2, and other processes have increased woody cover and homogenized vegetation in savannas across the planet. African savannas with extensive versus minimal woody cover often have vastly different animal communities. However, we lack a clear mechanistic understanding of why animal communities are changing with vegetation structure. Our goal for this study was to understand how vegetation structure in an African savanna shaped the perceived predation risk of small mammals, hence affecting their activity. Using a reciprocal measure of standard giving-up-densities, amount of food eaten, we found sharp declines in rodents’ perceived predation risk and increased rodent activity underneath shrub cover. This response was consistent across species; however, species showed subtle differences in their responses to grassy vegetation. Our findings suggest that areas of minimal or extensive shrub cover (shrub encroachment) may be homogenizing rodents’ perceptions of predation risk and thus shaping their use of space.

Disturbance by large herbivores, fires, and humans shapes the structure of savannas, altering the amount of woody vegetation and grass. Due to change in the intensity and frequency of these disturbances, savannas are shifting toward grass-dominated or shrub-dominated systems, likely altering animal communities. Small mammals are critical components of savannas, and their distributions likely are affected by these ecosystem-wide changes in vegetative cover. We assessed the responses of small mammals to a gradient of woody cover in low-lying savannas of southeastern Africa. In Kruger National Park (South Africa) and in three nearby reserves (Eswatini), we livetrapped for over 2 years to build multispecies occupancy models that assessed the responses of the small mammal community to grass and woody cover. Overall, whole-community occupancy increased with grass biomass. More species responded positively to woody cover than to grass biomass, but woody cover was associated with reduced occurrence of one species (Mastomys natalensis). Our results suggest that an increase in grass biomass enhances whole-community occupancy of small mammals, but regional diversity is likely to be higher in areas that contain patches of high grass biomass as well as patches of woody cover.

Individuals who are interested in wildlife-related careers take unpaid positions to gain experience and remain competitive in the job market. However, unpaid positions may not provide the same training, skills acquisition, or long-term success as paid positions. We surveyed 796 graduates of wildlife-related bachelor's degree programs from accredited U.S. universities to assess how experiences and skills gained in paid and unpaid positions affected long-term employment or educational success. We found that respondents with more paid employment experience were more likely to obtain full-time employment in a wildlife-related field than those who had worked more unpaid positions. Further, respondents reported gaining more skills associated with long-term success from paid positions than unpaid positions. Our results highlight the importance of both paid work and experiences that provide valuable skills training for success in wildlife-related fields. We urge wildliferelated employers to offer more paid positions in lieu of unpaid opportunities. We further suggest that job-seeking, earlycareer scientists carefully consider the skills they will gain from particular jobs, and critically scrutinize the potential for longterm benefits before accepting an unpaid position.