为了管理捕食风险,猎物在动态的恐惧景观中航行,或风险感知的时空变化,反映捕食者分布,性状,活动周期。猎物可能会在食肉动物不太活跃的时候和地方使用栖息地来降低整个景观的风险。在多捕食者的景观中,避免一个捕食者会增加对另一个捕食者的脆弱性,使恐惧的景观难以预测和导航。此外,人类可以塑造捕食者和猎物之间的相互作用,并引发新的风险来源。人类可以充当盾牌,为厌恶人类的食肉动物的猎物提供避难所,作为一个捕食者,通过狩猎和车辆碰撞导致死亡,并引发超过食肉动物的恐惧反应。我们使用了2017年至2021年从63只全球定位系统领头麋鹿(Cervuscanadensis)收集的遥测数据,42美洲狮(Pumaconcolor),和16头狼(Canis狼疮)检查了华盛顿东北部麋鹿栖息地选择与食肉动物和人类有关的变化,美国。使用步骤选择函数,我们评估了麋鹿栖息地与美洲狮的关系,狼,和人类,迪尔时期(白天与夜间),季节(夏季产卵季节与秋季狩猎季节),和栖息地结构(开放与封闭的栖息地)。Diel周期对于理解麋鹿运动至关重要,允许麋鹿减少与捕食者的遭遇,无论何时何地,它们将是最大的威胁。麋鹿晚上强烈避开美洲狮,但白天对美洲狮反应近乎中立,而麋鹿在一天中的任何时候都避开狼。麋鹿通常使用美洲狮和狼最活跃的更开放的栖息地,而不是根据捕食者物种改变栖息地结构的使用。麋鹿在白天避免人类死亡,约80%的成年女性死亡是人类造成的,这表明人类在这个系统中充当了“超级捕食者”。同时,麋鹿在夜间利用人盾对抗狼,而不是美洲狮,确认没有麋鹿被狼杀死。我们的结果增加了越来越多的证据,表明人类深刻影响捕食者-猎物的相互作用,强调在人为领域研究这些动态的重要性。
To manage predation risk, prey navigate a dynamic landscape of fear, or spatiotemporal variation in risk perception, reflecting predator distributions, traits, and activity cycles. Prey may seek to reduce risk across this landscape using habitat at times and in places when predators are less active. In multipredator landscapes, avoiding one predator could increase vulnerability to another, making the landscape of fear difficult to predict and navigate. Additionally, humans may shape interactions between predators and prey, and induce new sources of risk. Humans can function as a shield, providing a refuge for prey from human-averse carnivores, and as a predator, causing mortality through hunting and vehicle collisions and eliciting a fear response that can exceed that of carnivores. We used telemetry data collected between 2017 and 2021 from 63 Global Positioning System-collared elk (Cervus canadensis), 42 cougars (Puma concolor), and 16 wolves (Canis lupus) to examine how elk habitat selection changed in relation to carnivores and humans in northeastern Washington, USA. Using step selection functions, we evaluated elk habitat use in relation to cougars, wolves, and humans, diel period (daytime vs. nighttime), season (summer calving season vs. fall hunting season), and habitat structure (open vs. closed habitat). The diel cycle was critical to understanding elk movement, allowing elk to reduce encounters with predators where and when they would be the largest threat. Elk strongly avoided cougars at night but had a near-neutral response to cougars during the day, whereas elk avoided wolves at all times of day. Elk generally used more open habitats where cougars and wolves were most active, rather than altering the use of habitat structure depending on the predator species. Elk avoided humans during the day and ~80% of adult female mortality was human caused, suggesting that humans functioned as a \"super predator\" in this system. Simultaneously, elk leveraged the human shield against wolves but not cougars at night, and no elk were confirmed to have been killed by wolves. Our results add to the mounting evidence that humans profoundly affect predator-prey interactions, highlighting the importance of studying these dynamics in anthropogenic areas.