Improving the anti-predator responses of native mammals

引入的猫和狐狸的捕食导致澳大利亚哺乳动物的灭绝和减少。 在围栏保护区内保护受威胁的哺乳动物是有效的，但随着时间的推移，它们可能变得人口过多，近亲繁殖，对捕食者更加天真。这导致了将它们恢复到自然栖息地的希望越来越小。 先前的研究表明，在大型围栏围场中将受威胁的哺乳动物暴露在低水平的猫捕食中，可以改善它们的反捕食行为，改变它们的外表，提高生存率。这项资助旨在了解这些变化背后的机制（遗传/学习），以利用和提升我们的结果，并促进本地哺乳动物和引入的捕食者之间的共存。

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.