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Isolation from mammalian predators differentially affects two congeners
Authors:Blumstein  Daniel T; Daniel  Janice C
Institution:Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, The University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA Department of Psychology and The Cooperative Research Centre for Conservation and Management of Marsupials, Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109, Australia
Abstract:Evolutionary isolation from predators can profoundly influencethe morphology, physiology, and behavior of prey, but littleis known about how species respond to the loss of only someof their predators. We studied antipredator behavior of tammarwallabies (Macropus eugenii) and western gray kangaroos (Macropusfuliginosus) on Kangaroo Island (KI), South Australia, andat Tutanning Nature Reserve on the mainland of western Australia.Both species on KI have been isolated from native mammalian predators for several thousand years. On KI, wallabies (becauseof their size) are vulnerable to diurnal aerial predators.In contrast, on the mainland both species have been exposedcontinuously to native and introduced mammalian and avian predators.At both locations, wallabies modified the amount of time they allocated to vigilance and foraging in response to group size,whereas kangaroos did so only at the higher risk Tutanningsite. Both species modified overall time budgets (they werewarier at the higher risk site), and both species modifiedspace-use patterns as a function of risk. At the higher risk site, tammars were closer to cover, whereas kangaroos were,on average, farther from cover. We hypothesize that the presenceof a single predator, even if it is active at a different timeof day, may profoundly affect the way a species responds tothe loss of other predators by maintaining certain antipredatorbehaviors. Such an effect of ancestral predators may be expected as long as species encounter some predators.
Keywords:group size effects  habitat selection  macropod antipredator behavior  Macropus eugenii  Macropus fuliginosus  relaxed selection  tammar wallabies  time allocation  vigilance  western gray kangaroos  
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