Cues from a common predator cause survival-linked behavioral adjustments in Mojave Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Issue Date
2017Journal title
Behavioral Ecology and SociobiologyVolume
71Issue
10Begin page
158
Metadata
Show full item recordAlternative link
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-017-2387-0Abstract
Animals are expected to engage in behavioral decision-making that minimizes their risk of predation; these decisions can cause non-lethal predator effects to behavior and spatial use. Our goal was to determine whether non-lethal effects of a common predator, coyotes (Canis latrans), could affect the behavior of a declining reptile, the Mojave Desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), hereafter tortoise....Description
Description: Some predators of desert tortoise have become more common due to human “subsidies”, food from waste or agriculture. One such predator that might contribute to the decline of tortoises is the coyote. Using tortoises at SDZG’s Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, we found that the presence of coyote urine caused captive tortoises to spend more time in burrows. Although this helps tortoises avoid predation, an increasing presence of coyotes on the landscape may cause tortoises to spend more time below ground and, therefore, less time above ground foraging. Thus coyotes may affect tortoises by indirect effects as well as predation.Type
ArticleRights
Copyright © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germanyae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s00265-017-2387-0
Scopus Count
Collections