Fear-Mediated Food Webs


Trophic cascades: Predators, prey and the changing dynamics of nature, 2010

Joel Berger

Introduction

Modern humans feel a primordial dread, when walking alone through habitat occupied by lions, tigers, or grizzly bears. Many prey species must similarly be gripped with fear in the presence of predators. Even today’s megavertebrates— elephants, rhinos, and whales-who some might claim are immune to predation by virtue of their size, alter their movements and patterns of habitat use to reduce predation on neonates (Berger 1993; Reeves et al. 2006). In this chapter I consider the behavioral and ecological consequences of fear as manifested primarily by large mammals and as revealed in comparisons of prey species in contrasting situations of high and low risk of predation.