Fearlessness: Habitat Use and Avoidance Behavior in the Absence of Natural Predators at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique

Abstract

Natural ecosystems are balanced by predators. Top down regulation and fear of predation affects the behavior of mesopredators and herbivores. Prey species alter their habitat use depending on cost (possible mortality) and benefit (valuable forage time). Prey species must be able to detect the appropriate cues and respond accordingly to avoid predation. How does this risk evaluation change in the absence of natural predatory pressure?

Predator simulation experiments are a useful tool for observing the responses of naïve species or species that have lived in isolation from their natural predators for some time. This is particularly useful for conservationists wanting to reintroduce predators. For this study, the avoidance behavior of three leopard prey species: warthogs, bushbuck and waterbuck will be observed in response to predator cues. Body size will be used as a predictor of the strength of the response (Anderson, 2016) The selected species have not encountered leopards in at least a decade at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique (Stalmans & Peel, 2016). Prerecorded leopard calls and 2-phenylethylamine will be used as predator cues. 2-phenylethylamine was previously characterized as the main component of carnivore urine to which prey species respond (Ferrero, 2011).

Vigilance behavior varies across species and is relatively difficult to quantify for comparison across species. For this study, the mean detections, the proportion of night videos and the group size s in each treatment category will be used to quantify avoidance behavior.