BEYOND ABUNDANCE: HOW TOP PREDATORS AFFECT MESOPREDATOR BEHAVIOUR AND LIFE HISTORY

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Top predators strongly influence biodiversity. Areas with high biodiversity attract tourism income and provide valuable ecosystem services. In Australia, high biodiversity, and the opportunity to view top predators, increase the experience quality of tourists, and increase the probability that they will visit an area, but Australia has many highly fragmented ecosystems, which lose top predators. Disappearance of top predators can lead to expanding populations of mid-level predators, and concomitant losses of biodiversity. In Australia, where lizards are major top- and mid-level predators in terrestrial systems, our study will directly address the consequences of predator disappearance, and provide management strategies to deal with it.