Fear of Predators in Free-living Wildlife Reduces Population Growth Over Generations
Published:08 Feb.2022 Source:University of Western Ontario
Predators kill prey and prey attempt to avoid being killed by predators; the former obviously reduces the number of prey but, according to a new study, fear (avoiding being killed) can itself halve the population size of prey in 5 years or less, by so impairing parental investment and care fewer than half as many young reach adulthood and those that do are permanently handicapped.
These findings by Professor Liana Zanette, her PhD student Marek Allen, and Michael Clinchy, from Western University's Department of Biology, were published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).