Abstract
Attempts to assess behavioral responses of prey to predation risk are often confounded by depredation of prey. Moreover, the scale at which the response of prey is assessed has important implications for discovering how predation risk alters prey behavior. Herein, we assessed space use of wild Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in response to spatial and temporal variation in recreational hunting. We radio-marked pheasants and monitored space use at two spatial scales: short-term seasonal home range, and nightly resting locations. Additionally, we considered temporal variation in predation risk by monitoring space use prior to and during the pheasant hunting season. Although we found no change in nightly resting location, pheasants subjected to predation risk expanded their home range and shifted home range location even when invulnerable to predation. Home range formation was plastic, with home ranges expanding and contracting as risk fluctuated before and during the hunting season. Depredation reduced the measured response within the population, obscuring the potential importance of perceived predation risk in shaping prey communities, particularly when not measured at the appropriate scale. By assessing space use of a wild prey population at multiple scales, considering spatial and temporal variation in predation risk, we show that not only does predation risk affect space use, but that the effects at the population level may be challenging to assess when not measured at the appropriate ecological scale because of the direct effects of differential mortality on the same behaviors.
Highlights
IntroductionSpace use has profound implications for individuals, populations and communities [1,2,3,4,5] with variation in resource availability, predation, competition, and climate all influencing how individuals select and use appropriate habitats [4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13], and the scale(s) at which responses are manifested [11,12,13]
Cameras recorded more hunters on high-risk than low-risk sites during the early-season (Fig 2; Tables 1 and 2), but hunter numbers declined in the high-risk group with predation risk becoming equivocal between groups by the late season (Fig 2; difference between high- and low-risk groups during the late season = 0.00, credible intervals (CI): -0.002, 0.003)
We simultaneously assessed the response of a vulnerable and invulnerable prey population to spatial and temporal variation in predation risk, and show that predation risk alone can alter space use, but that depredation within the prey populations can obscure such effects if the responses are not measured at the appropriate spatial and temporal scale
Summary
Space use has profound implications for individuals, populations and communities [1,2,3,4,5] with variation in resource availability, predation, competition, and climate all influencing how individuals select and use appropriate habitats [4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13], and the scale(s) at which responses are manifested [11,12,13]. An emerging body of evidence suggests that the perception of predation risk alters space use, time allocation, species distribution, population growth, and species interactions [14,18,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. Do we fail to find individuals using high-risk environments because they have been depredated or because they are expressing risk adverse behaviors (Fig 1)?
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