Fear of the human 'super predator' in native marsupials and introduced deer in Australia

Recent experiments have demonstrated that carnivores and ungulates in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America fear the human 'super predator' far more than other predators. Australian mammals have been a focus of research on predator naiveté because it is suspected they show atypical antipr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2024-05, Vol.291 (2023), p.20232849
Main Authors: McGann, Katherine, Johnson, Christopher N, Clinchy, Michael, Zanette, Liana Y, Cunningham, Calum X
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Australia
Deer - physiology
Dogs
Ecology
Fear
Humans
Introduced Species
Marsupialia - physiology
Predatory Behavior
Vocalization, Animal
Wolves - physiology
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Summary:Recent experiments have demonstrated that carnivores and ungulates in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America fear the human 'super predator' far more than other predators. Australian mammals have been a focus of research on predator naiveté because it is suspected they show atypical antipredator responses. To experimentally test if mammals in Australia also most fear humans, we quantified the responses of four native marsupials (eastern grey kangaroo, Bennett's wallaby, Tasmanian pademelon, common brushtail possum) and introduced fallow deer to playbacks of predator (human, dog, Tasmanian devil, wolf) or non-predator control (sheep) vocalizations. Native marsupials most feared the human 'super predator', fleeing humans 2.4 times more often than the next most frightening predator (dogs), and being most, and significantly, vigilant to humans. These results demonstrate that native marsupials are not naïve to the peril humans pose, substantially expanding the taxonomic and geographic scope of the growing experimental evidence that wildlife worldwide generally perceive humans as the planet's most frightening predator. Introduced fallow deer fled humans, but not more than other predators, which we suggest may result from their being introduced. Our results point to both challenges concerning marsupial conservation and opportunities for exploiting fear of humans as a wildlife management tool.
ISSN:1471-2954
0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2023.2849