Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA.
Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2035, Australia.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2019 Sep 16;374(1781):20180058. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0058. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
Many translocations and introductions to recover threatened populations fail because predators kill prey soon after release; a problem exacerbated for predator-naive prey. While pre-release training has been shown to work in some situations, it is time consuming and relies on using inferred predator cues and treating small groups. We review a relatively new and very promising management tool: in situ, pre-release predator conditioning. Here, the goal is to allow prey in large enclosures to live with low densities of predators to accelerate selection for antipredator traits (in an evolutionary sense) or provide prey essential experience with predators that they will later encounter. We review the published results of a large-scale, controlled experiment where we have permitted burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur) and greater bilblies (Macrotis lagotis) to live with low densities of feral cats (Felis catus), a species implicated in their widespread decline and localized extinction. We found that both species could persist with cats, suggesting that future work should define coexistence thresholds-which will require knowledge of prey behaviour as well as the structure of the ecological community. Compared to control populations, predator-naive prey exposed to cats has a suite of morphological and behavioural responses that seemingly have increased their antipredator abilities. Results suggest that predator-conditioned bilbies survive better when released into a large enclosure with an established cat population; future work will determine whether this increased survival extends to the wild. This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation'.
许多为了恢复受威胁物种而进行的转移和引入项目都以失败告终，因为捕食者在猎物被释放后不久就将其捕杀；对于捕食者不熟悉的猎物来说，这个问题更加严重。虽然预先释放训练在某些情况下已经被证明是有效的，但它既费时又费力，而且依赖于使用推断出的捕食者线索和对小团体进行处理。我们回顾了一种相对较新的、非常有前途的管理工具：原地预先释放的捕食者驯化。在这里，目标是让大围栏中的猎物与低密度的捕食者一起生活，以加速选择具有抗捕食者特征（从进化意义上讲），或者为猎物提供与它们以后会遇到的捕食者的必要经验。我们回顾了一项大规模控制实验的已发表结果，在该实验中，我们允许穴居袋狸（Bettongia lesueur）和大袋狸（Macrotis lagotis）与低密度的野猫（Felis catus）一起生活，野猫被认为是导致它们广泛减少和局部灭绝的原因。我们发现，这两个物种都可以与猫共存，这表明未来的工作应该定义共存阈值——这将需要了解猎物的行为以及生态群落的结构。与对照组相比，暴露于猫的捕食者不熟悉的猎物具有一系列形态和行为反应，这些反应似乎提高了它们的抗捕食者能力。结果表明，在有已建立的猫种群的大围栏中释放经过驯化的袋狸时，它们的存活率更高；未来的工作将确定这种存活率的提高是否会延伸到野外。本文是主题为“将行为与种群和群落动态联系起来：行为生态学新方法在保护中的应用”的特刊的一部分。
