Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/29228
Appears in Collections:Biological and Environmental Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Weak spatiotemporal response of prey to predation risk in a freely interacting system
Author(s): Cusack, Jeremy J
Kohl, Michel T
Metz, Matthew C
Coulson, Tim
Stahler, Daniel R
Smith, Douglas W
MacNulty, Daniel R
Keywords: Animal Science and Zoology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Issue Date: Jan-2020
Date Deposited: 4-Apr-2019
Citation: Cusack JJ, Kohl MT, Metz MC, Coulson T, Stahler DR, Smith DW & MacNulty DR (2020) Weak spatiotemporal response of prey to predation risk in a freely interacting system. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89 (1), pp. 120-131. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12968
Abstract: 1. The extent to which prey space use actively minimizes predation risk continues to ignite controversy. Methodological reasons that have hindered consensus include inconsistent measurements of predation risk, biased spatiotemporal scales at which responses are measured and lack of robust null expectations. 2. We addressed all three challenges in a comprehensive analysis of the spatiotemporal responses of adult female elk (Cervus elaphus) to the risk of predation by wolves (Canis lupus) during winter in northern Yellowstone, USA. 3. We quantified spatial overlap between the winter home ranges of GPS‐collared elk and three measures of predation risk: the intensity of wolf space use, the distribution of wolf‐killed elk and vegetation openness. We also assessed whether elk varied their use of areas characterized by more or less predation risk across hours of the day, and estimated encounter rates between simultaneous elk and wolf pack trajectories. We determined whether observed values were significantly lower than expected if elk movements were random with reference to predation risk using a null model approach. 4. Although a small proportion of elk did show a tendency to minimize use of open vegetation at specific times of the day, overall we highlight a notable absence of spatiotemporal response by female elk to the risk of predation posed by wolves in northern Yellowstone. 5. Our results suggest that predator–prey interactions may not always result in strong spatiotemporal patterns of avoidance.
DOI Link: 10.1111/1365-2656.12968
Rights: © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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