Abstract
Using domestic predators such as cats to control rodent pest problems around farms and homesteads is common across the world. However, practical scientific evidence on the impact of such biological control in agricultural settings is often lacking. We tested whether the presence of domestic cats and/or dogs in rural homesteads would affect the foraging behaviour of pest rodents. We estimated giving up densities (GUDs) from established feeding patches and estimated relative rodent activity using tracking tiles at 40 homesteads across four agricultural communities. We found that the presence of cats and dogs at the same homestead significantly reduced activity and increased GUDs (i.e. increased perception of foraging cost) of pest rodent species. However, if only cats or dogs alone were present at the homestead there was no observed difference in rodent foraging activity in comparison to homesteads with no cats or dogs. Our results suggest that pest rodent activity can be discouraged through the presence of domestic predators. When different types of predator are present together they likely create a heightened landscape of fear for foraging rodents.
Highlights
In the evolutionary arms race between predators and their prey, many animals have developed innate and learned behaviours to avoid predation [1]
The impact of predators on the behaviour and physiology of their prey has been the topic of several reviews which highlight opportunities for exploiting these dynamics for pest management [2,3,4]
The predicted number of tracking tiles marked by rodents in homesteads with both cats and dogs was 12 [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26], with neither domestic predator present the predicted number of tracking tiles marked by rodents was 28 [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43]
Summary
In the evolutionary arms race between predators and their prey, many animals have developed innate and learned behaviours to avoid predation [1]. The impact of predators on the behaviour and physiology of their prey has been the topic of several reviews which highlight opportunities for exploiting these dynamics for pest management [2,3,4]. Much laboratory research has been able to demonstrate quite clear effects of predatory odours from urine, faeces, fur, skin and anal glands on the behaviour and physiology of prey animals [5,6,7], understanding these dynamics under field conditions has been challenging due to often complex behaviours, habitats, intra-specific competition and habituation [2,3,8]. Landscape of fear for pest rodents analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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