Description
Large carnivores are returning to many regions in Europe, where their ungulate prey species have lived in absence of large carnivores for over 100 years. This raises the question whether deer that have lived in absence of carnivores, associate the scent of wolf (Canis lupus) with predation risk and adjust their behaviour accordingly. We performed an experiment in which we compared the behaviour of naive deer (living in an area without wolves for 150 years in the Netherlands) and non-naive deer (living an area with wolves for >100 years in Poland) in response to wolf urine. As control cues we used water (no scent) and all-purpose soap as an unfamiliar but low-risk scent. By means of camera traps we recorded deer behavioural responses to the scents. Both the naive and non-naive deer had a vigilance background level of 20%, which surprisingly did not increase in response to wolf urine for deer living in areas with or without wolves. Besides, we found an unexpected behavioural response of the non-naive deer to all-purpose soap which increased vigilance and reduced foraging time, whereas the behaviour of naive deer was not affected. This suggests that scents associated with humans can cause a different response in deer in human-dominated areas (in the Netherlands) compared to deer in remote areas (in Poland), and should be taken into account when designing experiments. The scent of wolf urine, resembling a single urine mark of wolves, is apparently not sufficient to affect naive and non-naive deer behaviour. More intense cues, or a combination of predation risk cues, are likely needed before large carnivores indirectly change the behaviour of their prey species.| Period | 14-Feb-2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2018 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 11 |
| Organiser | Netherlands Ecological Research Network (NERN) |
| Location | Lunteren, NetherlandsShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |