Diet quality in a wild grazer declines under the threat of an ambush predator.
Predators influence prey populations not only through predation itself, but also indirectly through prompting changes in prey behaviour. The behavioural adjustments of prey to predation risk may carry nutritional costs, but this has seldom been studied in the wild in large mammals. Here, we studied the effects of an ambush predator, the African lion (Panthera leo), on the diet quality of plains zebras (Equus quagga) in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. We combined information on movements of both prey and predators, using GPS data, and measurements of faecal crude protein, an index of diet quality in the prey. Zebras which had been in close proximity to lions had a lower quality diet, showing that adjustments in behaviour when lions are within short distance carry nutritional costs. The ultimate fitness cost will depend on the frequency of predator-prey encounters and on whether bottom-up or top-down forces are more important in the prey population. Our finding is the first attempt to our knowledge to assess nutritionally mediated risk effects in a large mammalian prey species under the threat of an ambush predator, and brings support to the hypothesis that the behavioural effects of predation induce important risk effects on prey populations.
Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7272, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Université de la Rochelle, , 79360 Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France, WildCRU, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, , Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Oxford OX13 5QL, UK, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR5558, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, , Bât Gregor Mendel, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), , 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France, URP3F, INRA, , 86600 Lusignan, France.
Florian
F
Barnier
Marion
M
Valeix
Patrick
P
Duncan
Simon
S
Chamaillé-Jammes
Philippe
P
Barre
Andrew J
AJ
Loveridge
David W
DW
Macdonald
Hervé
H
Fritz
D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D018397:Equidae / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008045:Lions / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D015030:Zimbabwe
African lion; Hwange National Park; anti-predator behaviour; plains zebra; risk effects