Predation risk can modify the foraging behaviour of frugivorous carnivores: Implications of rewilding apex predators for plant-animal mutualisms.

ABSTRACT: Apex predators play key roles in food webs and their recovery can trigger trophic cascades in some ecosystems. Intra-guild competition can reduce the abundances of smaller predators and perceived predation risk can alter their foraging behaviour thereby limiting seed dispersal by frugivorous carnivores. However, little is known about how plant-frugivore mutualisms could be disturbed in the presence of larger predators. We evaluated the top-down effect of the regional superpredator, the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus, on the number of visits and fruits consumed by medium-sized frugivorous carnivores, as well as the foraging behaviour of identified individuals, by examining the consumption likelihood and the foraging time. We carried out a field experiment in which we placed Iberian pear Pyrus b

SUBMITTER: Burgos T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9311824 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature