ArticleOecologia2023
Prey species increase activity in refugia free of terrestrial predators.
Article in Oecologia, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Human Shield Hypothesis: Does Predator Avoidance of Humans Create Refuges for Prey?Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Impacts of predation risk on learning and memory of free-living mice.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The decline of terrestrial predator populations across the globe is altering top-down pressures that drive predator-prey interactions. However, a knowledge gap remains in understanding how removing terrestrial predators affects prey behavior. Using a bifactorial playback experiment, we exposed fox squirrels to predator (red-tailed hawks, coyotes, dogs) and non-predator control (Carolina wren) calls inside terrestrial predator exclosures, accessible to avian predators, and in control areas subject to ambient predation risk. Fox squirrels increased their use of terrestrial predator exclosures, a pattern that corresponded with 3 years of camera trapping. Our findings suggest fox squirrels recognized that exclosures had predictably lower predation risk. However, exclosures had no effect on their immediate behavioral response towards any call, and fox squirrels responded most severely to hawk predator calls. This study shows that anthropogenically driven predator loss creates predictably safer areas (refugia) that prey respond to proactively with increased use. However, the persistence of a lethal avian predator is sufficient to retain a reactive antipredator response towards an immediate predation threat. Some prey may benefit from shifting predator-prey interactions by gaining refugia without sacrificing a sufficient response towards potential predators.
Indexed as
Identifiers
36897410What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.