Human habituation reduces hyrax flight initiation distance in Serengeti
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Abstract
Many animal populations are exposed to disturbance originating from human ac‐ tivities. In response to human disturbance, certain animals display a variety of po‐ tentially costly behavioural responses, such as increased antipredator behaviour or relocation to new areas. In contrast, other animals seemingly thrive in the presence of humans and benefit from human‐derived resources. Flight initiation distance (FID: the distance between predator and prey when prey starts to flee) is a measure com‐ monly used to assess animals’ tolerance to humans. In this study, we tested how FID changes in relation to human presence in two hyrax species in Serengeti National Park. Hyraxes living on kopjes (rock outcrops) among human settlements showed a significantly shorter FID than hyraxes living on kopjes without human settlements. In addition, we found that hyraxes feeding before the experiment had shorter FID than hyraxes resting or being vigilant, and hyraxes disturbed during the early morn‐ ing had shorter FID than hyraxes disturbed during late morning. We did not find any significant effects of group size or species composition on FID. Our results suggest that hyraxes living in the presence of humans are habituated and are not adversely affected by human settlements
Description
Full text article. Also available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eth.12968
Keywords
Human habituation, Serengeti, Flight initiation distance, FID, Hyrax species, Serengeti National Park, Kopje, Antipredatory behaviour, Tanzania
Citation
Mbise, F. P., Fredriksen, K. E., Ranke, P. S., Jackson, C., Fyumagwa, R., Holmern, T., ... & Røskaft, E. (2020). Human habituation reduces hyrax flight initiation distance in Serengeti. Ethology, 126(3), 297-303.