"Ecology of fear" in ungulates: Opportunities for improving conservation.

ABSTRACT: Because ungulates are important contributors to ecosystem function, understanding the "ecology of fear" could be important to the conservation of ecosystems. Although studying ungulate ecology of fear is common, knowledge from ungulate systems is highly contested among ecologists. Here, we review the available literature on the ecology of fear in ungulates to generalize our current knowledge and how we can leverage it for conservation. Four general focus areas emerged from the 275 papers included in our literature search (and some papers were included in multiple categories): behavioral responses to predation risk (79%), physiological responses to predation risk (15%), trophic cascades resulting from ungulate responses to predation risk (20%), and manipulation of predation risk (1%). Of pa

SUBMITTER: Chitwood MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8888265 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature