Abstract
AbstractRisk recognition by prey is of paramount importance within the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey. Prey species are able to detect direct predator cues like odors and adjust their behavior appropriately. The question arises whether an indirect predation cue, such as the odor of scared individuals, can be detected by conspecifics and subsequently affects recipient behavior. Parents may also transfer their experience with predators to their offspring. In two experiments, we assessed how direct and indirect predation cues affect bank vole (Myodes glareolus) foraging behavior, reproduction, and pup fitness. Weasel (Mustela nivalis) odor served as the direct cue, whereas the odor of weasel‐scared conspecifics, alarm pheromones, was used as an indirect cue and both of those were compared to a control odor, clean wood shavings. Alarm pheromones attracted female voles, measured as time in proximity to the treatment and foraging. Both predator odor and alarm pheromones enhanced reproduction compared to the control odor. Females treated with alarm pheromone had significantly higher pregnancy rates, and pups from predator‐treated mothers were significantly heavier at birth. Our study provides two novel ideas. First, the impact of a predator can be socially transmitted. Second, predation risk likely triggers terminal investment in reproduction.
Highlights
Predators decrease an individual’s survival probability (Sih et al 1985, Murdoch et al 2003)
It seems likely that the sex of the individual had a negligible role in the decision to enter either odor compartment of the maze, as it was not included in the best model
In contrast to the first choice for odors, we found that over the full experimental duration of three hours there was a significant interaction between the sex of the vole and the time spent in the Alarm pheromone (AP) tube (LMM, P = 0.031, df = 10, n = 50, Fig. 1)
Summary
Predators decrease an individual’s survival probability (Sih et al 1985, Murdoch et al 2003). The indirect effects of predator presence, has been recognized as strong life-history determinants across different taxa (Sih 1994, Ylo€nen and Ronkainen 1994, Werner and Peacor 2003, Nelson et al 2004, Ylo€nen and Brown 2007, Sheriff et al 2009). In the last decades, the focus has shifted more and more toward the indirect effects of predation (see reviews by Lima 1998, Creel and Christianson 2008), and it has been recognized that perceived predation risk alone can have large fitness or survival effects on the population level as direct mortality by predators (Schmitz et al 1997, Nelson et al 2004, Preisser et al 2005, Pangle et al 2007). In many mammalian prey species, this includes behavioral changes such as
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