Human habituation reduces hyrax flight initiation distance in Serengeti

Many animal populations are exposed to disturbance originating from human activities. In response to human disturbance, certain animals display a variety of potentially costly behavioural responses, such as increased antipredator behaviour or relocation to new areas. In contrast, other animals seemi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethology 2020-03, Vol.126 (3), p.297-303
Main Authors: Mbise, Franco P., Fredriksen, Kari‐Elise, Ranke, Peter S., Jackson, Craig, Fyumagwa, Robert, Holmern, Tomas, Fossøy, Frode, Røskaft, Eivin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal populations
Animals
Anti-predator behavior
antipredatory behaviour
Disturbance
Flight
flight initiation distance
Group size
Habituation
Habituation (learning)
Human settlements
kopje
Land settlement
National parks
Outcrops
Prey
Relocation
Species composition
Tanzania
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Summary:Many animal populations are exposed to disturbance originating from human activities. In response to human disturbance, certain animals display a variety of potentially costly behavioural responses, such as increased antipredator behaviour or relocation to new areas. In contrast, other animals seemingly thrive in the presence of humans and benefit from human‐derived resources. Flight initiation distance (FID: the distance between predator and prey when prey starts to flee) is a measure commonly used to assess animals’ tolerance to humans. In this study, we tested how FID changes in relation to human presence in two hyrax species in Serengeti National Park. Hyraxes living on kopjes (rock outcrops) among human settlements showed a significantly shorter FID than hyraxes living on kopjes without human settlements. In addition, we found that hyraxes feeding before the experiment had shorter FID than hyraxes resting or being vigilant, and hyraxes disturbed during the early morning had shorter FID than hyraxes disturbed during late morning. We did not find any significant effects of group size or species composition on FID. Our results suggest that hyraxes living in the presence of humans are habituated and are not adversely affected by human settlements.
ISSN:0179-1613
1439-0310
DOI:10.1111/eth.12968