Neave Georgina, Murphy Brett P, Davies Hugh F
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods Charles Darwin University Casuarina Northern Territory Australia.
Tiwi Resources Pty Ltd Casuarina Northern Territory Australia.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Jul 9;15(7):e71622. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71622. eCollection 2025 Jul.
An understanding of how terrestrial mammalian predators use their environment is critical for the development of effective management and monitoring. Mammalian predators often use anthropogenic linear features-such as roads, fencelines, and infrastructure corridors-to increase movement efficiency and prey encounter rates. However, there has been little investigation into how predators use more subtle linear features such as game trails (i.e., well-trodden paths created by megaherbivores). This is despite native and exotic megaherbivores being abundant across many of Earth's most intact landscapes and conservation areas. We investigated how the two largest terrestrial mammalian predators in northern Australian savannas-the dingo ( introduced ca. 4000 years ago) and cat ( introduced ca. 200 years ago)-use game trails created by exotic megaherbivores (Asian water buffalo and horse ). We deployed two camera traps at 52 sites, with one camera positioned on a game trail and another in undisturbed vegetation < 60 m away. We compared the activity of predators on game trails to adjacent undisturbed vegetation and explored how trail use varied with vegetation structure and prey activity. Dingoes and cats were 34 times and 6 times more likely to be detected on game trails than in adjacent vegetation, respectively, suggesting these predators preferentially use game trails. We speculate that the extensive network of game trails created by exotic megaherbivores across northern Australia's vast savannas has potentially facilitated terrestrial mammalian predator movement at very large scales. Controlling exotic megaherbivores may, therefore, provide a means of disrupting the activity of dingoes and cats, thereby benefiting predation-susceptible native species. However, further research is needed to understand the ecological implications of game trails in Australian savannas and other habitat types.
了解陆生哺乳动物捕食者如何利用其环境对于制定有效的管理和监测措施至关重要。哺乳动物捕食者经常利用人为线性特征，如道路、围栏线和基础设施走廊，来提高移动效率和猎物相遇率。然而，对于捕食者如何利用诸如兽径（即大型食草动物踩出的常用路径）等更细微的线性特征，却鲜有研究。尽管本地和外来的大型食草动物在地球上许多最完整的景观和保护区中数量众多，但情况依然如此。我们调查了澳大利亚北部稀树草原上两种最大的陆生哺乳动物捕食者——澳洲野犬（约4000年前引入）和猫（约200年前引入）——如何利用外来大型食草动物（亚洲水牛和马）创造的兽径。我们在52个地点部署了两台相机陷阱，一台相机放置在兽径上，另一台放置在60米外未受干扰的植被中。我们比较了捕食者在兽径上和相邻未受干扰植被中的活动情况，并探讨了兽径利用情况如何随植被结构和猎物活动而变化。结果发现，澳洲野犬和猫在兽径上被检测到的可能性分别是相邻植被中的34倍和6倍，这表明这些捕食者优先利用兽径。我们推测，外来大型食草动物在澳大利亚北部广袤稀树草原上创造的广泛兽径网络，可能在很大程度上促进了陆生哺乳动物捕食者的移动。因此，控制外来大型食草动物可能提供一种扰乱澳洲野犬和猫活动的方法，从而使易受捕食的本地物种受益。然而，需要进一步研究来了解澳大利亚稀树草原和其他栖息地类型中兽径的生态影响。
