Does Historical Coexistence with Dingoes Explain Current Avoidance of Domestic Dogs? Island Bandicoots Are Naive to Dogs, unlike Their Mainland Counterparts.

ABSTRACT: Introduced predators have a global reputation for causing declines and extinctions of native species. Native prey naiveté towards novel predators is thought to be a key reason for predator impacts. However, naiveté is not necessarily forever: where coexistence establishes, it is likely that naiveté will be reduced through adaptation, and the once alien predator will eventually become recognised by prey. For example, native marsupial bandicoots in Sydney avoid backyards with domestic dogs (C. lupus familiaris), but not domestic cats (Felis catus), even though cats and dogs were both introduced about 200 years ago (Carthey and Banks 2012). The authors attributed bandicoots' recognition of dogs to long-term exposure to a close relative of dogs, dingoes that arrived in Australia 4000 years ago

SUBMITTER: Frank AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5014422 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature