PARENT SESSION
Wednesday, August 9, 8:00-11:50 am
OOS 8 - When does fear matter? A road map to the implications of trait-mediated effects to ecology
Ballroom D, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center
Organized by: EL Preisser (preisser@psis.umass.edu), G Trussell, and E Werner
This session synthesizes mathematical theory, conceptual work, and empirical research to explore the factors influencing the relative importance of trait- and density-mediated effects in ecological communities.
Finding snow leopards in the fear of their prey.
Ale, Som*,1, Brown, Joel2, 1 University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, IL2 University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT- Rare, elusive predators offer few sightings, hobbling research with small sample sizes and lack of experimentation. Consequently, field studies of large carnivores often reside outside of main-stream ecology, and our understanding of their role in ecosystems remains unclear. Unlike their predators, prey are more abundant, and their behaviors can be observed. Prey respond to the presence of a predator and these fear responses have population and community level consequences. Such fear responses allow us to sidestep the difficulty of direct field studies of large predators by indirectly studying them. Here we used the foraging and vigilance behaviors of Himalayan tahr Hemitragus jemlahicus to study the elusive snow leopard Uncia uncia in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. We combined old-fashioned, mud-and-boots field biology with techniques and concepts of foraging theory. Tahr's vigilance behaviors revealed a tight association with the presence of snow leopard sign across valleys, between terrain types, and between vegetation types in 2004 and 2005. Furthermore, our focus on tahr yielded five sightings of snow leopards and three opportunities to photograph four different snow leopards. Given that top predators are increasingly heralded as both the target and the means to conserve biodiversity and that re-colonization is a fundamental goal of conservation biology either via reintroduction or returning of predators, our work may serve as a model for countries with large predators but with limited resources.
Key words: fear, vigilance, snow leopard