Human 'super predator' more terrifying than bears, wolves and dogs

Date: July 25, 2016

Source: University of Western Ontario

Bears, wolves and other large carnivores are frightening beasts but the fear they inspire in their prey pales in comparison to that caused by the human 'super predator.'

A new study by Western University demonstrates that smaller carnivores, like European badgers, that may be prey to large carnivores, actually perceive humans as far more frightening. Globally, humans now kill smaller carnivores at much higher rates than large carnivores do, and these results indicate that smaller carnivores have learned to fear the human 'super predator' far more than they fear their traditional enemies.

These findings by Liana Zanette and Michael Clinchy from Western's Faculty of Science, in collaboration with celebrated British biologist David Macdonald from University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and others, were published this week in Behavioral Ecology.

Zanette, a professor in Western's Department of Biology, and her colleagues experimentally demonstrated that smaller carnivores, like badgers, foxes and raccoons, that may appear to be habituated to humans because they live among us, are actually experiencing elevated levels of fear -- living in fear of the human 'super predator' in human-dominated landscapes.

"Our previous research has shown that the fear large carnivores inspire can itself shape ecosystems. These new results indicate that the fear of humans, being greater, likely has even greater impacts on the environment, meaning humans may be distorting ecosystem processes even more than previously imagined," explains Zanette, a wildlife ecologist. "These results have important implications for conservation, wildlife management and public policy."

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