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Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden

Prey species may display anti‐predatory behavior, i.e., flight, increased vigilance, and decreased feeding, in response to the true presence of a predator or to the implied presence of a predator through, e.g., acoustic cues. In this study, we investigated the anti‐predatory reactions of moose (Alce...

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Autores principales: Bhardwaj, Manisha, Lodnert, Denice, Olsson, Mattias, Winsvold, Aina, Eilertsen, Svein Morten, Kjellander, Petter, Seiler, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9667297/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36407905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9492
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author Bhardwaj, Manisha
Lodnert, Denice
Olsson, Mattias
Winsvold, Aina
Eilertsen, Svein Morten
Kjellander, Petter
Seiler, Andreas
author_facet Bhardwaj, Manisha
Lodnert, Denice
Olsson, Mattias
Winsvold, Aina
Eilertsen, Svein Morten
Kjellander, Petter
Seiler, Andreas
author_sort Bhardwaj, Manisha
collection PubMed
description Prey species may display anti‐predatory behavior, i.e., flight, increased vigilance, and decreased feeding, in response to the true presence of a predator or to the implied presence of a predator through, e.g., acoustic cues. In this study, we investigated the anti‐predatory reactions of moose (Alces alces) to acoustic stimuli related to hunting, at saltlick stones, a known attractant. In before‐during‐after‐control‐impact experiments, we compared the behavioral responses of individuals to: (i) two hunting‐related acoustic stimuli—hunting dog barking and human speaking; (ii) nonpredatory acoustic stimuli—bird sounds and; and (iii) no acoustic stimulus (control). We asked: (1) How does the probability of moose leaving the site differ depending on the stimulus they are exposed to?; (2) What affect do the acoustic stimuli have on the amount of time moose spend vigilant, feeding, or away from the site?; and (3) What affect do the stimuli have on the time between events at a site? We found that when exposed to the human stimulus, moose left the sites in 75% of the events, which was significantly more often compared to the dog (39%), bird (24%), or silent (11%) events. If moose did not leave the site, they spent more time vigilant, and less time feeding, particularly when exposed to a dog or human stimulus. Furthermore, moose spent the most time away from the site and took the longest to visit the site again after a human stimulus. Moose were also more likely to leave the site when exposed to the bird stimulus than during silent controls. Those that remained spent more time vigilant, but their behaviors returned to baseline after the bird stimulus ended. These findings suggest that acoustic stimuli can be used to modify the behavior of moose; however, reactions towards presumably threatening and nonthreatening stimuli were not as distinct as we had expected.
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spelling pubmed-96672972022-11-17 Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden Bhardwaj, Manisha Lodnert, Denice Olsson, Mattias Winsvold, Aina Eilertsen, Svein Morten Kjellander, Petter Seiler, Andreas Ecol Evol Research Articles Prey species may display anti‐predatory behavior, i.e., flight, increased vigilance, and decreased feeding, in response to the true presence of a predator or to the implied presence of a predator through, e.g., acoustic cues. In this study, we investigated the anti‐predatory reactions of moose (Alces alces) to acoustic stimuli related to hunting, at saltlick stones, a known attractant. In before‐during‐after‐control‐impact experiments, we compared the behavioral responses of individuals to: (i) two hunting‐related acoustic stimuli—hunting dog barking and human speaking; (ii) nonpredatory acoustic stimuli—bird sounds and; and (iii) no acoustic stimulus (control). We asked: (1) How does the probability of moose leaving the site differ depending on the stimulus they are exposed to?; (2) What affect do the acoustic stimuli have on the amount of time moose spend vigilant, feeding, or away from the site?; and (3) What affect do the stimuli have on the time between events at a site? We found that when exposed to the human stimulus, moose left the sites in 75% of the events, which was significantly more often compared to the dog (39%), bird (24%), or silent (11%) events. If moose did not leave the site, they spent more time vigilant, and less time feeding, particularly when exposed to a dog or human stimulus. Furthermore, moose spent the most time away from the site and took the longest to visit the site again after a human stimulus. Moose were also more likely to leave the site when exposed to the bird stimulus than during silent controls. Those that remained spent more time vigilant, but their behaviors returned to baseline after the bird stimulus ended. These findings suggest that acoustic stimuli can be used to modify the behavior of moose; however, reactions towards presumably threatening and nonthreatening stimuli were not as distinct as we had expected. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9667297/ /pubmed/36407905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9492 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Bhardwaj, Manisha
Lodnert, Denice
Olsson, Mattias
Winsvold, Aina
Eilertsen, Svein Morten
Kjellander, Petter
Seiler, Andreas
Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title_full Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title_fullStr Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title_short Inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—A behavioral experiment on moose (Alces alces) in Sweden
title_sort inducing fear using acoustic stimuli—a behavioral experiment on moose (alces alces) in sweden
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9667297/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36407905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9492
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