DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Functional response and predator prey interactions between cheetahs and gazelles

捕食是控制野生动物数量最重要的因素之一。了解捕食者如何调节猎物数量并维持自身数量的关键是了解捕食者如何根据遇到的猎物改变行为。例如，捕食者可能在很大程度上忽略稀有类型的猎物，从而帮助保护它们，简单地消耗所有类型的猎物，与它们的丰度成比例，或者达到消耗非常丰富的猎物的上限，使它们相对自由地繁殖并进一步占据主导地位。这个项目将通过询问雄性和雌性捕食者的反应有何不同，以及来自大型捕食者的威胁如何改变小型捕食者的行为，来完善我们对捕食者如何对丰富的猎物做出反应的理解。在大多数情况下，这些问题几乎不可能直接回答，因为在野外观察个体狩猎太困难了，或者因为人类已经消灭了捕食者。这个项目将推进一个案例，在这个案例中，研究人员已经开发出了在一个基本完整的系统中跟踪野生狩猎的方法，在非洲大草原上，猎豹捕食瞪羚。该项目的成果将扩大非洲和北美野生动物管理的科学基础，通过与公众接触来改善保护工作，加强国际合作，并培养一名美国博士生。捕食者的功能反应决定了自然界中捕食者和猎物丰度的增减。这个项目将加深我们对自然界捕食率和效率的理解，通过研究一种捕食者之间的差异，特别是雄性和雌性对它们遇到的猎物密度的潜在不同反应，以及它们在捕猎时对大型捕食者的威胁。该项目将利用一个系统，该系统可以在大量野生动物仍然存在的栖息地跟踪单个捕食者，在坦桑尼亚塞伦盖蒂国家公园的大草原上，猎豹正在捕食瞪羚。研究人员将对每只猎豹进行数天的观察，并将这些观察结果与历史数据相结合，以发现猎豹的年龄、猎豹和瞪羚的社会群体以及狮子的威胁如何决定雌性和雄性猎豹捕食猎物的比率。该项目将利用社交媒体教育公众关于猎豹的知识，猎豹被列为世界自然保护联盟红色名录上的一种脆弱物种。研究人员将向旅行团、游猎司机和大学生发表关于野生动物保护的演讲。

Predation is one of the most important controls on the abundance of wildlife. Key to understanding how predators regulate the abundance of their prey and maintain their own numbers is knowing how predators change their behavior according to the prey they encounter. For example, predators might largely ignore rare types of prey and so help conserve them, simply consume all types of prey in proportion to their abundance, or reach an upper limit of consumption of very abundant prey, leaving them relatively free to multiply and dominate further. This project will refine our understanding of how predators respond to the abundance of prey by asking how responses differ between male and female predators and how threats from larger predators may change the behavior of smaller ones. In most cases, these questions are nearly impossible to answer directly because it is too hard to observe individual hunts in the wild, or because humans have exterminated predators. This project will take advance of a case where the researchers have developed methods to follow wild hunts in a largely intact system, predation by cheetahs on gazelles in the African savanna. The results of this project will expand the scientific basis for wildlife management in Africa and North America, improve conservation through outreach to the public, strengthen international collaboration, and train a U.S. Ph.D. student. Functional responses of predators determine how the abundances of both predators and prey increase and decrease in nature. This project will deepen our understanding of rates and efficiencies of predation in nature by studying differences within a species of predator, in particular the potential for different responses in males and females to the density of prey that they encounter and to threats from larger predators as they hunt. The project will take advantage of a system where it is possible to follow individual predators in a habitat where large populations of wildlife still remain, cheetahs preying on gazelles in the savanna of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Researchers will watch hunts by individual cheetahs for several days each and combine these observations with historical data to discover how age of cheetahs, social grouping of cheetahs and gazelles, and threats from lions determine the rates at which female and male cheetahs kill prey. The project will use social media to educate the public about cheetahs, which are listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List. Researchers will deliver talks on conservation of wildlife to tour groups, safari drivers, and college students.