Occurrence of Conspecific in the Neighboring Space Influence on Flight Initiation Distance in Cape Hare <i>Lepus capensis</i> under Human Stimuli — Oak Academic Publishing
Research ArticleOpen AccessGoogle Scholar indexed
Occurrence of Conspecific in the Neighboring Space Influence on Flight Initiation Distance in Cape Hare <i>Lepus capensis</i> under Human Stimuli
Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
,
Department of Wildlife Management, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
,
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
,
Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
,
Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
,
Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
1 Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
2 Department of Wildlife Management, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
3 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
4 Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
5 Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
6 Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
Optimal escape theory predicts that animals would balance the costs and benefits of flight. One cost of not fleeing is the ongoing cost of vigilance for upcoming environmental threats. Our results show that FID increases for vigilant hares with predator starting distance, due to the costs acquired by continuing to scan for ecological dangers. The presence of conspecifics within proximity distance for social hare was reduced FID due to collective vigilance, while a solitary animal had greater FID, due to less cooperative defense for predator detection. In both seasons, detection and flight initiation distance of the focal hare increased in open habitat due to a higher probability of detection for upcoming danger, while dense cover provided concealment but reduced the probability of detecting an incoming threat, reducing FID. Moreover, proximity to roads and the nearest refuge significantly influenced anti-predator risk by compensation energy to cope with approaching stimuli. In a landscape with heavy human hunting in retaliation to plantations damage has modified the natural behavior of the hare in the Shigar valley. The findings are discussed in the context of hare FID by humans and the suggestions for management and mitigation of human-wildlife conflict are also considered.
KeywordsAlert DistanceDistance to RefugeFlight Initiation Distance (FID)Group Size EffectStarting DistanceSocial or Solitary Hare
Guinness, S., Van Dongen, W., Guay, P.-J., Robinson, R. and Weston, M. (2019) Evaluating How the Group Size of Domestic, Invasive Dogs Affect Coastal Wildlife Responses: The Case of Flight-Initiation Distance (FID) of Birds on Southern Australian Beaches. In: Makowski, C. and Finkl, C., Eds., Impacts of Invasive Species on Coastal Environments, Springer, Cham, 413-424. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91382-7_12
Stankowich, T. and Reimers, E. (2015) Escape Decisions in Mammals. Escaping from Predators: An Integrative View of Escape Decisions. Cambridge University Press, London.
Guay, P.-J., McLeod, E., Cross, R., Formby, A., Maldonado, S., Stafford-Bell, R.E., et al. (2013) Observer Effects Occur When Estimating Alert but Not Flight-Initiation Distances. Wildlife Research, 40, 289-293. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR13013
Sproat, K.K., Martinez, N.R., Smith, T.S., Sloan, W.B., Flinders, J.T., Bates, J.W., et al. (2020) Desert Bighorn Sheep Responses to Human Activity in South-Eastern Utah. Wildlife Research, 47, 16-24. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR19029
Martín, J. and López, P. (2015) Hiding Time in Refuge. In: Cooper Jr. W.E., Ed., Escaping from Predators: An Integrative View of Escape Decisions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 227-262. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107447189.010
Stankowich, T. (2008) Ungulate Flight Responses to Human Disturbance: A Review and Meta-Analysis. Biological Conservation, 141, 2159-2173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.06.026
Williams, D.M., Nguyen, P.-T., Chan, K., Krohn, M. and Blumstein, D.T. (2020) High Human Disturbance Decreases Individual Variability in Skink Escape Behavior. Current Zoology, 66, 63-70. https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz027
Marealle, W.N., Fossøy, F., Holmern, T., Stokke, B.G. and Røskaft, E. (2010) Does Illegal Hunting Skew Serengeti Wildlife Sex Ratios? Wildlife Biology, 16, 419-430. https://doi.org/10.2981/10-035
Baskin, L.M. and Hjalten, J. (2001) Fright and Flight Behavior of Reindeer. Alces, 37, 435-445.
Zaman, M., Tolhurst, B.A., Zhu, M. and Jiang, G. (2019) Increased Flight Initiation Distance (FID) in Golden Marmots (Marmota caudata aurea) Responding to Domestic Dogs in a Landscape of Human Disturbance. Animals, 9, 605. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9090605
Putri, I.A., Ansari, F. and Susilo, A. (2020) Response of Bird Community toward Tourism Activities in the Karst Area of Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 21, 146-167. https://doi.org/10.1080/1528008X.2019.1631725
Valente, S., Skarin, A., Ciucci, P. and Uboni, A. (2020) Attacked from Two Fronts: Interactive Effects of Anthropogenic and Biotic Disturbances Generate Complex Movement Patterns. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 52, 27-40. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2019.1698251
Simpson, S.D., Radford, A.N., Nedelec, S.L., Ferrari, M.C., Chivers, D.P., McCormick, M.I., et al. (2016) Anthropogenic Noise Increases Fish Mortality by Predation. Nature Communications, 7, Article No. 10544. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10544
Runyan, A.M. and Blumstein, D.T. (2004) Do Individual Differences Influence Flight Initiation Distance? The Journal of Wildlife Management, 68, 1124-1129. https://doi.org/10.2193/0022-541X(2004)068[1124:DIDIFI]2.0.CO;2
Fardell, L.L., Pavey, C.R. and Dickman, C.R. (2020) Fear and Stressing in Predator-Prey Ecology: Considering the Twin Stressors of Predators and People on Mammals. PeerJ, 8, e9104. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9104
Fattorini, N. and Ferretti, F. (2019) To Scan or Not to Scan? Occurrence of the Group-Size Effect in a Seasonally Nongregarious Forager. Ethology, 125, 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12844
Cooper, W.E., Cooper Jr, W.E. and Blumstein, D.T., Eds. (2015) Escaping from Predators: An Integrative View of Escape Decisions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Matson, K.D., Cohen, A.A., Klasing, K.C., Ricklefs, R.E. and Scheuerlein, A. (2005) No Simple Answers for Ecological Immunology: Relationships among Immune Indices at the Individual Level Break down at the Species Level in Waterfowl. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273, 815-822. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3376
Louis, S. and Le Beere, M. (2000) Adjustment in Flight Distance from Humans by Marmota marmota. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 78, 556-563. https://doi.org/10.1139/z99-242
Mendes, C.P., Carreira, D., Pedrosa, F., Beca, G., Lautenschlager, L., Akkawi, P., et al. (2020) Landscape of Human Fear in Neotropical Rainforest Mammals. Biological Conservation, 241, Article ID: 108257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108257
Zaman, M., Rakha, B., Bao, H., Vitekere, K. and Jiang, G. (2020) Effect of Habitat Factors and Predator Density on the Spatial Abundance of Cape Hare (Lepus capensis) in the Karakorum Range. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 18, 2921-2934.
Weterings, M.J., Zaccaroni, M., van der Koore, N., Zijlstra, L.M., Kuipers, H.J., van Langevelde, F., et al. (2016) Strong Reactive Movement Response of the Medium-Sized European Hare to Elevated Predation Risk in Short Vegetation. Animal Behaviour, 115, 107-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.03.011
Zhang, H., Li, W., Hu, Y. and Zhang, Y. (2015) Opposite Companion Effect on Flight Initiation Distance in Sympatric Species: Plateau Pika (Ochotona curzoniae) and White-Rumped Snowfinch (Onychostruthus taczanowskii). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 94, 109-114. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2015-0126
Brown, M. (2020) Detecting an Effect of Group Size on Individual Responses to Neighboring Groups in Gray-Cheeked Mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena). International Journal of Primatology, 41, 287-304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-020-00144-9
Deppe, A.M. (2020) Brown Mouse Lemurs (Microcebus rufus) May Lack Opportunities to Learn about Predator Calls. Folia Primatologica, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1159/000505953
Blumstein, D.T., Fernández-Juricic, E., Zollner, P.A. and Garity, S.C. (2005) Inter-Specific Variation in Avian Responses to Human Disturbance. Journal of Applied Ecology, 42, 943-953. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01071.x
Frid, A. and Dill, L. (2002) Human-Caused Disturbance Stimuli as a Form of Predation Risk. Conservation Ecology, 6, 11. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00404-060111
García-Arroyo, M. and MacGregor-Fors, I. (2020) Tolerant to Humans? Assessment of Alert and Flight Initiation Distances of Two Bird Species in Relation to Sex, Flock Size, and Environmental Characteristics. Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2020.1753115
Cooper, W.E., Cooper Jr., W.E. and Blumstein, D.T. (2015) Escaping from Predators: An Integrative View of Escape Decisions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107447189
Samia, D.S., Blumstein, D.T., Stankowich, T., Cooper Jr., W.E., et al. (2016) Fifty Years of Chasing Lizards: New Insights Advance Optimal Escape Theory. Biological Reviews, 91, 349-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12173
Chassagneux, A., Calenge, C., Marchand, P., Richard, E., Guillaumat, E., Baubet, E., et al. (2020) Should I Stay or Should I Go? Determinants of Immediate and Delayed Movement Responses of Female Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) to Drive Hunts. PLoS ONE, 15, e0228865. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228865
Muposhi, V.K., Gandiwa, E., Makuza, S.M. and Bartels, P. (2016) Trophy Hunting and Perceived Risk in Closed Ecosystems: Flight Behaviour of Three Gregarious African Ungulates in a Semi-Arid Tropical Savanna. Austral Ecology, 41, 809-818. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12367
Eason, P.K., Nason, L.D. and Alexander, J.E. (2019) Squirrels Do the Math: Flight Trajectories in Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 66. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00066
Cooper Jr., W.E. and Blumstein, D.T. (2013) Novel Effects of Monitoring Predators on Costs of Fleeing and Not Fleeing Explain Flushing Early in Economic Escape Theory. Behavioral Ecology, 25, 44-52. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/art083
Blumstein, D.T., Samia, D.S., Stankowich, T. and Cooper Jr., W.E. (2015) 16. Best Practice for the Study of Escape Behavior. In: Cooper Jr., W.E., Ed., Escaping from Predators: An Integrative View of Escape Decisions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 407-419. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107447189.017
Zaman, M., Tolhurst, B., Zhu, M., Heng, B. and Jiang, G. (2019) Do Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) Increase the Detectability of Scent Marks by Selecting Highly Conspicuous Substrates? Journal of Ethology and Animal Science, 2, Article ID: 000113.
Blumstein, D.T., Diaz, A. and Yin, L. (2018) Marmots Do Not Consistently Use Their Left Eye to Respond to an Approaching Threat but Those That Did Fled Sooner. Current Zoology, 64, 727-731. https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy003
Gorini, L., Linnell, J.D., May, R., Panzacchi, M., Boitani, L., Odden, M., et al. (2012) Habitat Heterogeneity and Mammalian Predator-Prey Interactions. Mammal Review, 42, 55-77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2011.00189.x
Guo, K., Liu, H., Bao, H., Hu, J., Wang, S., Zhang, W., et al. (2017) Habitat Selection and Their Interspecific Interactions for Mammal Assemblage in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Northeastern China. Wildlife Biology, No. 4, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00261
Blumstein, D.T. (2010) Flush Early and Avoid the Rush: A General Rule of Antipredator Behavior? Behavioral Ecology, 21, 440-442. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arq030
Blumstein, D.T., Ebensperger, L., Hayes, L., Vásquez, R.A., Ahern, T.H., Burger, J.R., et al. (2010) Toward an Integrative Understanding of Social Behavior: New Models and New Opportunities. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 4, 34. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00034
Blumstein, D.T. and Munos, O. (2005) Individual, Age and Sex-Specific Information Is Contained in Yellow-Bellied Marmot Alarm Calls. Animal Behavior, 69, 353-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.10.001
Clutton-Brock, T., Gaynor, D., McIlrath, G., Maccoll, A., Kansky, R., Chadwick, P., et al. (1999) Predation, Group Size and Mortality in a Cooperative Mongoose, Suricata suricatta. Journal of Animal Ecology, 68, 672-683. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00317.x
Fairbanks, B. and Dobson, F.S. (2007) Mechanisms of the Group-Size Effect on Vigilance in Columbian Ground Squirrels: Dilution versus Detection. Animal Behaviour, 73, 115-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.07.002
Holtmeier, F.-K. (2015) Animals’ Influence on the Landscape and Ecological Importance. Springer, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9294-3
Møller, A.P. (2008) Flight Distance and Population Trends in European Breeding Birds. Behavioral Ecology, 19, 1095-1102. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arn103
Tätte, K., Møller, A.P. and Mänd, R. (2018) Towards an Integrated View of Escape Decisions in Birds: Relation between Flight Initiation Distance and Distance Fled. Animal Behaviour, 136, 75-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.12.008
Pulliam, H.R. (1973) On the Advantages of Flocking. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 38, 419-422. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(73)90184-7
Hoogland, J.L. and Sherman, P.W. (1976) Advantages and Disadvantages of Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia) Coloniality. Ecological Monographs, 46, 33-58. https://doi.org/10.2307/1942393
Hardie, S.M. and Buchanan-Smith, H.M. (1997) Vigilance in Single- and Mixed-Species Groups of Tamarins (Saguinus labiatus and Saguinus fuscicollis). International Journal of Primatology, 18, 217-234. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026372619340
Carey, H.V. and Moore, P. (1986) Foraging and Predation Risk in Yellow-Bellied Marmots. American Midland Naturalist, 116, 267-275. https://doi.org/10.2307/2425734
Blumstein, D.T., Runyan, A., Seymour, M., Nicodemus, A., Ozgul, A., Ransler, F., et al. (2004) Locomotor Ability and Wariness in Yellow-Bellied Marmots. Ethology, 110, 615-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2004.01000.x
Bischof, R., Ali, H., Kabir, M., Hameed, S. and Nawaz, M.A. (2014) Being the Underdog: An Elusive Small Carnivore Uses Space with Prey and Time without Enemies. Journal of Zoology, 293, 40-48. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12100
Roedenbeck, I.A. and Voser, P. (2008) Effects of Roads on Spatial Distribution, Abundance and Mortality of Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) in Switzerland. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 54, 425-437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-007-0166-3
Santilli, F. and Galardi, L. (2016) Effect of Habitat Structure and Type of Farming on European Hare (Lepus europaeus) Abundance. Hystrix, 27, 1-3.