ArticleOecologia2018
Fear, foraging and olfaction: how mesopredators avoid costly interactions with apex predators.
Article in Oecologia, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Seasonal use of American beaver lodge areas by gray wolves in Isle Royale National Park.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Carnivore activity across landuse gradients in a Mexican biosphere reserve.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Influence of Human Hunting Strategies and Large Carnivore Presence on Population Dynamics of European Facultative Scavengers.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Influence of heterospecifics on mesocarnivore behaviour at shared scavenging opportunities in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Wolf risk fails to inspire fear in two mesocarnivores suggesting facilitation prevails.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Evaluating the temporal and spatio-temporal niche partitioning between carnivores by different analytical method in northeastern Japan.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Spatial-Temporal Patterns of Sympatric Asiatic Black Bears (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Predation risk can modify the foraging behaviour of frugivorous carnivores: Implications of rewilding apex predators for plant-animal mutualisms.The Journal of animal ecology · 2022Article
- Terrestrial mesopredators did not increase after top-predator removal in a large-scale experimental test of mesopredator release theory.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Monitoring the dead as an ecosystem indicator.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Are British urban foxes (Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Variation in behavioral traits of two frugivorous mammals may lead to differential responses to human disturbance.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- The Wily and Courageous Red Fox: Behavioural Analysis of a Mesopredator at Resource Points Shared by an Apex Predator.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2019Article
- Olfactory cues of large carnivores modify red deer behavior and browsing intensity.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Where direct killing is rare and niche overlap low, sympatric carnivores may appear to coexist without conflict. Interference interactions, harassment and injury from larger carnivores may still pose a risk to smaller mesopredators. Foraging theory suggests that animals should adjust their behaviour accordingly to optimise foraging efficiency and overall fitness, trading off harvest rate with costs to fitness. The foraging behaviour of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, was studied with automated cameras and a repeated measures giving-up density (GUD) experiment where olfactory risk cues were manipulated. In Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, red foxes increased GUDs by 34% and quitting harvest rates by 29% in response to wolf urine. In addition to leaving more food behind, foxes also responded to wolf urine by spending less time visiting food patches each day and altering their behaviour in order to compensate for the increased risk when foraging from patches. Thus, red foxes utilised olfaction to assess risk and experienced foraging costs due to the presence of a cue from gray wolves, Canis lupus. This study identifies behavioural mechanisms which may enable competing predators to coexist, and highlights the potential for additional ecosystem service pathways arising from the behaviour of large carnivores. Given the vulnerability of large carnivores to anthropogenic disturbance, a growing human population and intensifying resource consumption, it becomes increasingly important to understand ecological processes so that land can be managed appropriately.
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