Fear of predators in free-living wildlife reduces population growth over generations.

ABSTRACT: Correctly assessing the total impact of predators on prey population growth rates (lambda, λ) is critical to comprehending the importance of predators in species conservation and wildlife management. Experiments over the past decade have demonstrated that the fear (antipredator responses) predators inspire can affect prey fecundity and early offspring survival in free-living wildlife, but recent reviews have highlighted the absence of evidence experimentally linking such effects to significant impacts on prey population growth. We experimentally manipulated fear in free-living wild songbird populations over three annual breeding seasons by intermittently broadcasting playbacks of either predator or nonpredator vocalizations and comprehensively quantified the effects on all the components o

SUBMITTER: Allen MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8851447 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature