Food availability and long-term predation risk interactively affect antipredator response.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology
• Wildlife Science

Background:

• Antipredator responses are crucial for prey survival, influenced by factors like food availability and predation risk.
• The interplay between food resources and varying predation pressure on anti-predator behavior is understudied in wild populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how food availability and long-term predation risk influence the anti-predator responses of snowshoe hares to acute predation risk.
• To understand the interactive effects of food supplementation and predation risk on foraging behavior.

Main Methods:

• Monitoring free-ranging snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) in Yukon, Canada, over four winters.
• Assessing foraging responses to Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) encounters under varying food availability (supplemental feeding) and long-term predation risk (hare mortality rates).

Main Results:

• Snowshoe hares significantly reduced foraging time after lynx encounters, with stronger responses at closer distances.
• Food-supplemented hares showed a reduced anti-predator response under high long-term risk, unlike control hares who increased their response.
• The magnitude of anti-predator behavior was significantly influenced by the interaction between food supplementation and long-term predation risk.

Conclusions:

• Food availability and long-term predation risk interact to modulate reactive anti-predator responses to immediate threats.
• Understanding these interacting factors is vital for predicting predator-prey dynamics and their indirect effects on prey populations.