Threading the needle: How humans influence predator-prey spatiotemporal interactions in a multiple-predator system.

Area of Science:

• Wildlife ecology
• Behavioral ecology
• Conservation biology

Background:

• Antipredator behavior in prey species is influenced by predator identity, spatial distribution, and temporal activity.
• Anthropogenic disturbance can alter predator-prey dynamics by changing species co-occurrence and encounter rates.
• Understanding these shifts is crucial for wildlife management in human-modified landscapes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn antipredator behavior changes along an anthropogenic disturbance gradient.
• To quantify the spatiotemporal associations between deer, their predators (black bears, coyotes, bobcats), and humans.
• To assess the impact of human presence on predator-prey interactions and deer vigilance.

Main Methods:

• Quantified spatial co-occurrence and temporal overlap of species distributions across diel cycles.
• Assessed spatiotemporal associations between humans, bears (Ursus americanus), coyotes (Canis latrans), bobcats (Lynx rufus), adult deer, and fawns.
• Examined changes in deer vigilance behavior relative to the anthropogenic disturbance gradient and survey duration.

Main Results:

• Anthropogenic disturbance increased spatiotemporal overlap among species, leading to generally neutral or positive spatial co-occurrence.
• Higher temporal overlap was observed between bears and fawns, coyotes and adult male deer, and bobcats and fawns in disturbed agricultural-development areas.
• Factors influencing deer vigilance differed between forest and agriculture-development matrix sites, indicating a response to the disturbance gradient.

Conclusions:

• Human activities significantly alter predator-prey spatial and temporal dynamics, often increasing species overlap.
• Anthropogenic disturbance reduces available niche space for wildlife, forcing species into altered spatiotemporal associations.
• Understanding these complex interactions is vital for effective wildlife conservation in human-dominated ecosystems.