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Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators

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 tact...

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Autores principales: 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.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33692107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe4164
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author 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.
author_facet 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.
author_sort Norbury, Grant L.
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-79463642021-03-23 Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators 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. Sci Adv Research Articles 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. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7946364/ /pubmed/33692107 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe4164 Text en Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
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.
Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title_full Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title_fullStr Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title_full_unstemmed Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title_short Misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
title_sort misinformation tactics protect rare birds from problem predators
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33692107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe4164
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