Wolves, elk, and bison: reestablishing the "landscape of fear" in Yellowstone National Park, U.S.A.

Laundré, John W.; Hernández, Lucina; Altendorf, Kelly B.

doi:10.1139/z01-094

Cited by 928 publications

(487 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…While some anti-predator behaviour may be heritable (Breden et al 1987;Riechert & Hedrick 1990;Cousyn et al 2001), other behaviour may be much more phenotypically plastic. Indeed, both time allocation (Hunter & Skinner 1998;Laundré et al 2001) and flight initiation distance (Ikuta & Blumstein 2003) may be highly experience-dependent and thus vary for reasons other than variation in the number or types of predators per se. More importantly, the loss of some anti-predator behaviour types does not necessarily result from the loss of all predators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The loss of anti-predator behaviour following isolation on islands

Blumstein¹,

Daniel²

2005

Proc. R. Soc. B.

247

220

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When isolated from predators, costly and no longer functional anti-predator behaviour should be selected against. Predator naiveté is often pronounced on islands, where species are found with few or no predators. However, isolation on islands involves other processes, such as founder effects, that might be responsible for naiveté or reduced anti-predator behaviour. We report the first comparative evidence that, in macropodid marsupials, isolation on islands may lead to a systematic loss of 'group size effects'-a behaviour whereby individuals reduce anti-predator vigilance and allocate more time to foraging as group size increases. Moreover, insular animals forage more, and are less vigilant, than mainland ones. However, we found no evidence that animals on the mainland are 'flightier' than those on islands. Remarkably, we also found no evidence that isolation from all predators per se is responsible for these effects. Together, these results demonstrate that anti-predator behaviour may indeed be lost or modified when animals are isolated on islands, but it is premature to assume that all such behaviour is affected.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The loss of anti-predator behaviour following isolation on islands

Blumstein¹,

Daniel²

2005

Proc. R. Soc. B.

247

220

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“…As a response to perceived predation risk, often heterogeneously distributed across the landscape (52), herbivores may select less risky areas, creating spatial variability in herbivore pressure and thus varying impacts on vegetation (34,53). Therefore, the presence of predators can allow local increases in the abundance of woody species, such as observed after the introduction of wolves in temperate woodlands followed by reduced browsing pressure from deer and locally enhanced recruitment of palatable shrubs and trees (45,(54)(55)(56), resembling that observed in exclosures (Fig. 1E).…”

Section: Spatially Structured Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation

Bakker

Gill

Johnson

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

322

299

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Until recently in Earth history, very large herbivores (mammoths, ground sloths, diprotodons, and many others) occurred in most of the World's terrestrial ecosystems, but the majority have gone extinct as part of the late-Quaternary extinctions. How has this large-scale removal of large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning? In this review, we combine paleo-data with information from modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of large herbivores (and their disappearance) on woody species, landscape structure, and ecosystem functions. In modern landscapes characterized by intense herbivory, woody plants can persist by defending themselves or by association with defended species, can persist by growing in places that are physically inaccessible to herbivores, or can persist where high predator activity limits foraging by herbivores. At the landscape scale, different herbivore densities and assemblages may result in dynamic gradients in woody cover. The late-Quaternary extinctions were natural experiments in large-herbivore removal; the paleoecological record shows evidence of widespread changes in community composition and ecosystem structure and function, consistent with modern exclosure experiments. We propose a conceptual framework that describes the impact of large herbivores on woody plant abundance mediated by herbivore diversity and density, predicting that herbivore suppression of woody plants is strongest where herbivore diversity is high. We conclude that the decline of large herbivores induces major alterations in landscape structure and ecosystem functions.browsers | ecosystem functions | herbivore diversity | landscape structure | megaherbivore During the late Quaternary, megafaunas were drastically reduced in most regions (1, 2), representing the start of an ongoing trophic downgrading that has resulted in the loss of entire functional guilds and relaxation of top-down control in today's ecosystems (3). A high proportion of the large herbivores that have survived into the Anthropocene (4) are now drastically reduced in range and abundance, rendering them functionally extinct, or have been replaced by livestock in much of their historic ranges (5-8). How has this loss of wild-living large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning?Contemporary large herbivores have strong effects on the abundance of woody species, plant diversity, nutrient cycling, and other biota (9). Most likely, the ecological effects of preextinction herbivores were as large, possibly much more so given the great size and diversity of the lost large herbivore assemblages (10, 11). We hypothesize that Pleistocene herbivore assemblages, including large and megaherbivore browsers, would have greatly reduced woody plant abundance and altered species composition and landscape structure, if present at sufficient densities. We review the impact of large herbivores (≥45 kg in body weight) on woody vegetation, with a focus on megaherbivores (≥1,000 kg), and combine information from ...

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“…Predation risk is often associated with indirect cues from the environment, including open habitat (Powell and Banks 2004) or moonlight , or for arboreal animals, being on the ground (Mella et al 2014); and with direct cues such as the scats and urine of predators (Apfelbach et al 2005). As these cues vary spatially and temporally (Carthey et al 2011;Hughes et al 2012;Price and Banks 2012), so does the landscape of fear (Laundre et al 2001;van der Merwe and Brown 2008). Animals will forage in safe areas if they can (Banks 2001;Verdolin 2006) but when they must forage in risky areas, they adopt many behaviours to manage their risk, including reduced time allocation, increased vigilance, central place foraging and group foraging (Lima and Dill 1990).…”

Section: Dealing With Predation Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%