The biology of fear: from brains to ecosystems to human mental health and human impacts

人类既是“超级捕食者”，又是猎物，会引起其他动物的恐惧，反过来又害怕它们。我们作为捕食者的角色揭示了捕食者引起的恐惧在生态学中的核心重要性；认识到我们作为猎物的角色增强了我们对创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的理解；测量我们引起的恐惧可能会提供一种工具来衡量我们对环境的影响，从而有助于保护环境。我极具原创性和创新性的研究项目涵盖了捕食者引起的恐惧的联系。我第一次证明了恐惧本身足以影响野生动物种群动态，部分原因是害怕的父母会让他们的孩子饿死，现在我要量化恐惧的总体影响，通过测试成年人是否也会死于恐惧。”有人认为，通过削弱亲代抚育，将猎物吓死，是大型食肉动物提供的关键生态系统服务的一部分，可以控制大型食草猎物；由于人类“超级捕食者”的迫害，大型食肉动物的消失导致了一项服务的丧失。我将在两个平行的实验中测试对大型食肉动物的恐惧是如何影响它们的大型食草猎物的人口和行为的，一个是鹿，另一个是bc以及南非野生动物保护区内有或没有狮子的有蹄类动物（如角马）。如果恐惧不影响生殖或生存，如果它对大脑有持久的影响，就像创伤后应激障碍一样，这将是令人惊讶的。捕食者引起的恐惧现在是PTSD动物模型（实验室老鼠）研究中最常用的压力源之一，因为它对大脑产生的影响与PTSD患者的影响相匹配。我将测试恐惧对野生动物大脑的可比持久影响，以确定其与人口统计学的联系，并帮助验证创伤后应激障碍的“捕食者模型”。我的开创性研究表明，由于它们的迫害，大型食肉动物已经变得如此害怕人类的“超级捕食者”，这可能会影响它们对大型食草动物的控制，现在我将测试由此产生的生态系统层面的影响。人类绝对是掠食者，偷猎是生物多样性丧失的主要原因。目前对偷猎行为的量化依赖于问卷调查，这在本质上是不可靠的，因为受访者必须承认犯罪。动物知道它们的敌人，我将测试使用我开发的创新技术，询问野生动物对人类的恐惧，是否可以作为可靠衡量偷猎和生态旅游影响的工具。我的变革性发现将促进生态学的发展，有利于创伤后应激障碍患者的护理，并有助于环境保护。我将培养1名博士后，6名博士，5名硕士，以及多个学士荣誉和本科生助理。这些HQP将具备在环境评估、生物医学科学、保护区管理、旅游、政府政策制定和学术界发挥重要作用的能力。

Humans are both “super predator” and prey inducing fear in other animals and fearing them in turn. Our role as predator is revealing the central importance of predator-induced fear in ecology; recognizing our role as prey is enhancing our understanding of post-traumatic stress (PTSD); and measuring the fear we inspire may provide a tool to gauge our impacts on the environment, and so aid conservation. My extremely original and innovative research program encompasses this nexus of predator-induced fear. I demonstrated for the first time that fear itself is powerful enough to affect wildlife population dynamics, partly because frightened parents will literally let their young starve to death, and I will now quantify the total impact of fear, by testing if adults may also die of fright'. Frightening their prey to death, e.g. by impairing parental care, has been argued to be part of the critical ecosystem service' large carnivores provide, in keeping their large herbivore prey in check; a service being lost with the loss of large carnivores caused by their persecution by the human “super predator”. I will test how the fear of large carnivores impacts the demography and behaviour of their large herbivore prey in two parallel experiments, on deer on B.C.'s Gulf Islands, and ungulates (e.g. wildebeest) in South African game reserves with and without lions. It would be surprising if fear did not affect reproduction or survival, if it has lasting impacts of the brain, as in PTSD. Predator-induced fear is now one of the most common stressors used in animal model' (lab rat) studies of PTSD, because it produces effects on the brain matching those seen in PTSD sufferers. I will test for comparable lasting impacts of fear on the brain in wild animals, to determine the links to demography, and help validate the predator model' of PTSD. My pioneering research demonstrates that, due to their persecution, large carnivores have come to so fear the human “super predator” this can affect their keeping large herbivores in check, and I will now test the resulting ecosystem-level impacts. Humans are definitely a predator, poaching being a principal cause of biodiversity loss. Quantifying poaching presently relies upon questionnaires, which are intrinsically unreliable because respondents must to confess to crimes. Animals know their enemies, and I will test if interrogating' wildlife about their fear of humans, using innovative new technology I developed, can be used as a tool to reliably gauge the impacts of poaching, and ecotourism. My transformative discoveries will advance ecology, benefit PTSD patient care, and aid conservation. I will train 1 Post-doc, 6 PhDs, 5 MScs, and multiple BSc Honours and undergraduate assistants. These HQP will be equipped to progress to highly impactful positions in environmental assessment, biomedical sciences, protected areas management, tourism, governmental policy making and academia.