What predators do ungulates in Africa fear the most?

Meadow is a fairly open environment with mostly vegetation, so it doesn't have as many hiding places as tropical rainforests. However, this is the habitat of many animals, both predators and predators.

When an impala stopped in a puddle to drink, it was always on the lookout for predators around. So when they hear a lion roar, they seem to immediately rush away to ensure safety. But instead, if it hears cheetahs it will continue to drink water, feeling undisturbed by potential nearby predators.

The hoofed animals will run away from lions most often.

Many South African ungulates, or hoofed animals, have different fear responses depending on which predator is nearby. That's the key finding of a recent study in the journal Behavioral Ecology, in which researchers showed that hoofed animals run away from lions most often, followed by African wild dogs and then the cheetah.

According to Liana Zanette, co-author of the study and wildlife ecologist at Canada's Western University, this "hierarchy of fear" is important because fear affects every aspect. in predator behavior and can have pervasive effects throughout the ecosystem.

"You can see that if they have different fear responses, that affects their feeding behaviour," says Zanette. She added that, "this could then affect the populations of their prey and affect their food further up the food chain".

 The prey most likely to fear the predators with the highest probability of killing them

To test ungulates' fear responses to different predators, the scientists first collected recordings of the roars of lions, cheetahs and African wild dogs, as well as bird calls to use as a method of fear control. They use short-range sounds such as growls to simulate a nearby predator.

They then broadcast these sounds to wildlife using a speaker connected to a photo trap. When the camera detects an animal moving nearby, it will start recording a video and then trigger the speaker to play the predator's sound.

Researchers set up camera and speaker systems at 14 different locations and let them operate day and night for several weeks in July 2017.

Scientists have proposed three theories about how ungulates would respond to individual predators.

• First, they may consider all predators equally terrifying, in which case they will frequently run away from all three predators.
• Second, they may show the most fear of predators that kill their own kind most often.
• Third, the prey most likely to fear the predators with the highest probability of killing them if they decide to attack, would be the lions.

After collecting hundreds of videos of animals being startled during their experiment, the researchers went through them and found that the results were consistent with the third hypothesis. "It's really a fear hierarchy because the animal most feared is the lion," says Zanette, "in second place is the wild dog, followed by the cheetah."

Hearing the lion roar, the impala immediately ran away.

The animals caught most often on camera are the impala, which clearly shows the hierarchy of this fear. But Zanette explains that lions don't really hunt impalas very often. Instead, the impala is more likely to be attacked and eaten by a wild dog or cheetah.

Zanette said: "Although impala must be the lion's main prey, they are still most afraid of lions, we think this is due to the probability of successful hunting, once the lion decides to go after them then it's not. the mortality rate for antelope is quite high," Zanette said.

Predators with different predatory behaviors can also trigger different response patterns in their prey.

Elizabeth le Roux, a large mammal ecologist at Aarhus University who was not involved in the study, said predators with different predatory behaviors can also trigger response patterns. different responses in their prey. The best way to avoid being eaten by a lion, she says, is to run away, while for pack predators like the African wild dog, stopping and checking your surroundings may be a wiser move.

Additionally, Kaitlyn Gaynor, a wildlife ecologist at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the study, says that understanding this complexity in predator behavior could be crucial. important for their conservation. She explains that humans have changed many ecosystems by removing some predator species, while adding others and acting as new predators themselves.

African wild dog.

Those predators can have major impacts on the landscape. For example, a 2014 study showed that predation risk from leopards and wild dogs shapes antelope's habitat preferences, thereby altering the distribution of tree species. in the Kenyan savanna.

Thus, the loss or reappearance of a predator can cause stratification effects throughout the ecosystem. "The reason that predators are able to have such effects on prey populations and ecosystems is because they not only kill them, but they scare them, and fear can have a negative effect on them," says Zanette. big impacts that we haven't really hit."