Do house mice modify their foraging behaviour in response to predator odours and habitat?
Do house mice modify their foraging behaviour in response to predator odours and habitat?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.08.016
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发表时间：
2004-04
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Fiona A. Powell;P. Banks
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fiona A. Powell;P. Banks
捕食者的气味和栖息地结构被认为会影响小型哺乳动物猎物的行为，这些猎物将其用作减少捕食风险的线索。我们测试了这个一般假设的家鼠，小家鼠，通过操纵狐狸气味密度通过添加狐狸粪便和栖息地通过斑块割草的植被，在15×15米的领域外壳的人口。使用放弃密度（GUD），当动物放弃收获补丁时剩余的食物密度，我们测量了对这些处理的觅食行为。小鼠始终避免开放区域，在这些区域中的GUD比在密集植被的斑块中大两到四倍。然而，小鼠GUD并没有改变响应添加狐狸粪便，即使在新鲜粪便后立即加入。狐狸气味和栖息地利用之间没有相互作用。然后，我们测试是否习惯于狐狸的气味已经发生，通过比较个人的反应，以粪便的8只小鼠出生到围栏与狐狸粪便的8只小鼠出生到无粪便的围栏和5只野生小鼠。在较小的外壳中，对于任何治疗，有碎屑的托盘的GUD与没有碎屑的托盘的GUD没有差异。我们的结论是，暴露于高水平的狐狸气味并没有改变老鼠的觅食行为，但老鼠确实减少了觅食的栖息地被删除的地区，感知捕食风险是在这些地区比对照组更大。我们进一步建议，研究使用的“scat-at-trap”技术，这表明避免捕食者气味的小鼠和其他小型哺乳动物，可能高估了一般避免捕食者气味的自由生活的猎物，必须饲料与捕食者气味的恒定背景。
Predator odours and habitat structure are thought to influence the behaviour of small mammalian prey, which use them as cues to reduce risks of predation. We tested this general hypothesis for house mice, Mus domesticus, by manipulating fox odour density via addition of fox scats and habitat via patchy mowing of vegetation, for populations in 15×15-m field enclosures. Using giving-up densities (GUDs), the density of food remaining when an animal quits harvesting a patch, we measured foraging behaviours in response to these treatments. Mice consistently avoided open areas, leaving GUDs two to four times greater in these areas than in densely vegetated patches. However, mouse GUDs did not change in response to the addition of fox scats, even immediately after fresh scats were added. There was no interaction between fox odour and habitat use. We then tested whether habituation to fox odours had occurred, by comparing the individual responses to scats of eight mice born into enclosures with fox scats to those of eight mice born into scat-free enclosures and five wild mice. In smaller enclosures, GUDs of trays with scats did not differ from GUDs of trays without scats for any treatment. We conclude that exposure to high levels of fox odours did not alter the foraging behaviour of mice, but that mice did reduce foraging in areas where habitat was removed, perceiving predation risk to be greater in these areas than controls. We suggest further that studies using the ‘scat-at-trap’ technique, which have shown avoidance of predator odours by mice and other small mammals, may overestimate the general avoidance of predator odours by free-living prey, which must forage with a constant background of predator odours.