Abstract

Flight initiation distance (FID) procedures are used to assess the risk perception animals have for threats (e.g., natural predators, hunters), but it is unclear whether these assessments remain meaningful if animals have habituated to certain human stimuli (e.g., researchers, tourists). Our previous work showed that habituated baboons displayed individually distinct and consistent responses to human approaches, a tolerance trait, but it is unknown if the trait is resilient to life‐threatening scenarios. If it were consistent, it would imply FIDs might measure specific human threat perception only and not generalize to other threats such as predators when animals have experienced habituation processes. We used FID procedures to compare baseline responses to the visual orientation distance, FID, and individual tolerance estimates assessed after a leopard predation on an adult male baboon (group member). All variables were consistent despite the predation event, suggesting tolerance to observers was largely unaffected by the predation and FID procedures are unlikely to be generalizable to other threats when habituation has occurred. FID approaches could be an important tool for assessing how humans influence animal behavior across a range of contexts, but careful planning is required to understand the type of stimuli presented.

Highlights

  • Flight, fleeing, and escape responses are widely reported antipredator defenses which can directly reduce the chance of an individual being successfully captured (Blumstein, 2003; Blumstein et al, 2003; Cheney & Predation, 1987; Isbell, 1994; Lingle, 2001)

  • If the predation event had little effect on visual orientation distance (VOD) and Flight initiation distance (FID) measures or individual tolerance estimates, it would indicate that despite observers being considered equivalent to a high-­level social threat, this threat perception is not altered as a result of the predation

  • When the nonpredation and postpredation datasets were combined, we found no evidence that VOD or FID were influenced by the predation at the population-­level, with both estimates close to zero and 95% credible intervals (CI) overlapping zero for the postpredation dataset (see trial type: Tables 1 and 2)

Read more

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Flight, fleeing, and escape responses are widely reported antipredator defenses which can directly reduce the chance of an individual being successfully captured (Blumstein, 2003; Blumstein et al, 2003; Cheney & Predation, 1987; Isbell, 1994; Lingle, 2001). If the predation event had little effect on VOD and FID measures or individual tolerance estimates (of the surviving group members), it would indicate that despite observers being considered equivalent to a high-­level social threat, this threat perception is not altered as a result of the predation If this prediction is met, it would suggest FID methodology is a robust measure of specific human (i.e., researcher) threat perception only when animals have been habituated, and not generalizable to other threats, which would have implications for research exploring antipredator behaviors using FID methodology in scenarios where habituation processes have taken place

| METHODS
Findings
| DISCUSSION
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call