Temporal patterns of waterhole use as a predator avoidance strategy
Temporal patterns of waterhole use as a predator avoidance strategy
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DOI：
10.1093/jmammal/gyaa020
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发表时间：
2020-04-08
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Nunn, Charles L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Amoroso, Caroline R.;Kappeler, Peter;Nunn, Charles L.
在干燥环境中依赖水源的动物必须平衡其水需求和捕食风险。在缺水的环境中，捕食者可能会战略性地利用猎物对水的依赖。猎物可以在空间或时间上调整对水源的使用，以避免与捕食者重叠。为了研究水源处捕食者和猎物的时空动态，我们研究了红额狐猴（Eulemur rufifrons）在旱季对半永久性水坑的使用情况，红额狐猴是一种灵长类动物，表现出灵活的昼夜节律活动模式，栖息在马达加斯加西部的干燥落叶森林中。我们假设狐猴在时空使用水坑时会躲避捕食者。我们分析了红额狐猴及其两种主要捕食者：窝狐猴 (Cryptoprocta ferox) 和马达加斯加鹞鹰 (Polyboroides radiatus) 在水坑激活相机陷阱的模式。我们发现，红额狐猴不太可能在一天中捕食者经常出现的时候使用水坑，而且红额狐猴和每种捕食者物种使用水坑的时间分布不同。红额狐猴经常使用同一周内掠食者也使用的水坑，部分原因是掠食者使用的水资源不同。在这个系统中，捕食者似乎并没有利用水坑来吸引高密度的红额狐猴，而是可能主要利用水坑来满足自己的水需求。我们的研究结果表明，当捕食者和猎物共享水源时，猎物可能会调整自己的行为，以减少与捕食者重叠的风险，包括通过避免间接的捕食线索，例如一天中特定时间的水坑。
Animals that depend on water sources in dry environments must balance their water demands with predation risk. In settings of water scarcity, predators may strategically exploit prey's dependence on water; prey may adjust their use of water sources either spatially or temporally to avoid overlapping with predators. To examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of predators and prey at water sources, we studied the use of semipermanent waterholes in the dry season by red-fronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons), a primate species that exhibits flexible circadian activity patterns and inhabits a dry deciduous forest in western Madagascar. We hypothesized that lemurs avoid predators in their spatiotemporal use of waterholes. We analyzed the patterns of camera trap activations at waterholes by red-fronted lemurs and their two main predators: fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) and Madagascar harrier hawks (Polyboroides radiatus). We found that red-fronted lemurs were unlikely to use waterholes at times of day when predators were commonly present, and that the distributions of times of waterhole use differed between red-fronted lemurs and each of their predator species. Red-fronted lemurs frequently used waterholes that were also used by predators within the same week in part because the predators used a variable set of water resources. In this system, predators did not appear to exploit waterholes for the high density of red-fronted lemurs attracted to them, but instead likely used waterholes primarily to meet their own water demands. Our findings suggest that when predators and prey share water sources, prey may adjust their behavior to reduce their risk of overlap with predators, including through avoidance of indirect cues of predation, such as waterholes at particular times of day.