Norbury Grant L, Price Catherine J, Latham M Cecilia, Brown Samantha J, Latham A David M, Brownstein Gretchen E, Ricardo Hayley C, McArthur Nikki J, Banks Peter B
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, Alexandra 9340, New Zealand.
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Sci Adv. 2021 Mar 10;7(11). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe4164. Print 2021 Mar.
Efficient decision-making integrates previous experience with new information. Tactical use of misinformation can alter choice in humans. Whether misinformation affects decision-making in other free-living species, including problem species, is unknown. Here, we show that sensory misinformation tactics can reduce the impacts of predators on vulnerable bird populations as effectively as lethal control. We repeatedly exposed invasive mammalian predators to unprofitable bird odors for 5 weeks before native shorebirds arrived for nesting and for 8 weeks thereafter. Chick production increased 1.7-fold at odor-treated sites over 25 to 35 days, with doubled or tripled odds of successful hatching, resulting in a 127% increase in modeled population size in 25 years. We demonstrate that decision-making processes that respond to changes in information reliability are vulnerable to tactical manipulation by misinformation. Altering perceptions of prey availability offers an innovative, nonlethal approach to managing problem predators and improving conservation outcomes for threatened species.
高效的决策将以往经验与新信息整合在一起。对错误信息的策略性运用能够改变人类的选择。错误信息是否会影响包括有问题的物种在内的其他自由生活物种的决策尚不清楚。在此，我们表明，感官错误信息策略能够像致死控制一样有效地减少捕食者对易受攻击鸟类种群的影响。在本地滨鸟抵达筑巢地之前，我们让入侵的哺乳动物捕食者反复接触无利可图的鸟类气味，为期5周，之后持续8周。在经过气味处理的地点，雏鸟数量在25至35天内增加了1.7倍，成功孵化的几率增加了一倍或两倍，导致25年内模拟种群数量增长了127%。我们证明，对信息可靠性变化做出反应的决策过程容易受到错误信息的策略性操纵。改变对猎物可获得性的认知为管理有问题的捕食者以及改善濒危物种的保护成果提供了一种创新的、非致死性方法。
