Webster C, Massaro M, Michael D R, Bambrick D, Riley J L, Nimmo D G
Institute for Land, Water and Society, School of Environmental Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales 2640, Australia.
Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2611, Australia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2018 Oct 31;5(10):180136. doi: 10.1098/rsos.180136. eCollection 2018 Oct.
Invasive mammalian predators are linked to terrestrial vertebrate extinctions worldwide. Prey naïveté may explain the large impact invasive predators have on native prey; prey may fail to detect and react appropriately to the cues of novel predators, which results in high levels of depredation. In Australia, the feral cat () and the red fox () are implicated in more than 30 animal extinctions and the naïveté of native prey is often used to explain this high extinction rate. Reptiles are one group of animals that are heavily preyed upon by and . However, very few studies have examined whether reptiles are naive to their cues. In this study, we examine the ability of two native reptile species ( and ) to detect and distinguish between the chemical cues of two invasive predators ( and ) and three native predators (spotted-tailed quoll, dingo, ; eastern brown snake, ), as well as two non-predator controls (eastern grey kangaroo, and water). We conducted experiments to quantify the effects of predator scents on lizard foraging (the amount of food eaten) during 1 h trials within Y-maze arenas. We found both study species reduced the amount they consumed when exposed to predator scents-both native and invasive-indicating that these species are not naive to invasive predators. An evolved generalized predator-recognition system, rapid evolution or learned behaviour could each explain the lack of naïveté in some native Australian reptiles towards invasive predators.
入侵性哺乳动物捕食者与全球范围内的陆地脊椎动物灭绝有关。猎物的天真可能解释了入侵捕食者对本地猎物产生的巨大影响；猎物可能无法察觉新型捕食者的线索并做出适当反应，从而导致大量被捕食。在澳大利亚，野猫（Felis catus）和赤狐（Vulpes vulpes）与30多种动物灭绝事件有关，本地猎物的天真常被用来解释这种高灭绝率。爬行动物是受野猫和赤狐严重捕食的一类动物。然而，很少有研究探讨爬行动物是否对它们的线索缺乏警惕。在本研究中，我们研究了两种本地爬行动物种（鬃狮蜥Pogona vitticeps和斜纹蓝舌蜥Tiliqua rugosa）检测和区分两种入侵捕食者（野猫和赤狐）、三种本地捕食者（斑尾袋鼬Dasyurus maculatus、澳洲野犬Canis lupus dingo、东部棕蛇Pseudonaja textilis）以及两种非捕食者对照（东部灰袋鼠Macropus giganteus和水）化学线索的能力。我们进行了实验，以量化在Y型迷宫实验场中1小时试验期间捕食者气味对蜥蜴觅食（进食量）的影响。我们发现，两个研究物种在接触捕食者气味（包括本地和入侵捕食者）时，进食量都减少了，这表明这些物种对入侵捕食者并非缺乏警惕。一种进化出的广义捕食者识别系统、快速进化或学习行为，都可以解释一些澳大利亚本地爬行动物对入侵捕食者不缺乏警惕的现象。
