Improving the anti-predator responses of native mammals

提高本土哺乳动物的抗捕食者反应

• 批准号: LP190100291
• 负责人: A/Prof Katherine Moseby
• 金额: $ 39.26万
• 依托单位: The University of New South Wales
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: Linkage Projects
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2020-04-01 至 2024-03-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://dataportal.arc.gov.au/RGS/Web/Grants/LP190100291
• 关键词: Improving; anti; predator; responses; native

Predation by introduced cats and foxes causes extinction and decline in Australian mammals. Protecting threatened mammals inside fenced sanctuaries is effective but they can become overpopulated, inbred and more naive to predators over time. This leads to a dwindling hope of ever restoring them to their natural habitat. Previous research has shown that exposing threatened mammals to low levels of cat predation in large fenced paddocks improves their anti-predator behaviour, changes their physical appearance and improves survival. This grant seeks to understand the mechanisms (genetic/learning) behind these changes in order to harness and upscale our results and facilitate co-existence between native mammals and introduced predators.

引进的猫和狐狸的捕食导致澳大利亚哺乳动物的灭绝和下降。在有围栏的保护区内保护受到威胁的哺乳动物是有效的，但随着时间的推移，它们可能会变得种群过剩，近亲繁殖，对捕食者更天真。这导致它们恢复自然栖息地的希望变得越来越渺茫。先前的研究表明，在大型围场中，将受到威胁的哺乳动物置于低水平的猫科动物捕食之下，可以改善它们的抗捕食者行为，改变它们的外貌，并提高存活率。这笔赠款旨在了解这些变化背后的机制(遗传/学习)，以便利用和提升我们的结果，并促进本土哺乳动物和外来捕食者之间的共存。