10.5061/DRYAD.1ZCRJDFNM
Bonnot, Nadège C.
0000-0002-8717-231X
National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment
and Agriculture
Couriot, Ophélie
French National Institute for Agricultural Research
Berger, Anne
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Cagnacci, Francesca
Fondazione Edmund Mach
Ciuti, Simone
University College Dublin
De Groeve, Johannes
Ghent University
Gehr, Benedikt
University of Zurich
Heurich, Marco
University of Freiburg
Kjellander, Petter
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Kröschel, Max
University of Freiburg
Morellet, Nicolas
French National Institute for Agricultural Research
Sönnichsen, Leif
Polish Academy of Sciences
Hewison, A.J. Mark
French National Institute for Agricultural Research
Data from: Fear of the dark? contrasting impacts of humans vs lynx on diel
activity of roe deer across Europe
Dryad
dataset
2019
Accelerometers
Crepuscularity
Human Footprint
nocturnality
Diurnality
Temporal partitioning
2019-11-29T00:00:00Z
2019-11-29T00:00:00Z
en
11363610 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Humans, as super predators, can have strong effects on wildlife behaviour,
including profound modifications of diel activity patterns. Subsequent to
the return of large carnivores to human-modified ecosystems, many prey
species have adjusted their spatial behaviour to the contrasting
landscapes of fear generated by both their natural predators and
anthropogenic pressures. The effects of predation risk on temporal shifts
in diel activity of prey, however, remain largely unexplored in
human-dominated landscapes. We investigated the influence of the density
of lynx (Lynx lynx), a nocturnal predator, on the diel activity patterns
of their main prey, the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), across a gradient
of human disturbance and hunting at the European scale. Based on 11
million activity records from 431 individually GPS-monitored roe deer in
12 populations within the EURODEER network (http://eurodeer.org), we
investigated how lynx predation risk in combination with both lethal and
non-lethal human activities affected deer diurnality. We demonstrated
marked plasticity in roe deer diel activity patterns in response to
spatio-temporal variations in risk, mostly due to human activities. In
particular, roe deer decreased their level of diurnality by a factor of
1.37 when the background level of general human disturbance was high.
Hunting exacerbated this effect, as during the hunting season deer
switched most of their activity to nighttime and, to a lesser extent, to
dawn, although this pattern varied noticeably in relation to lynx density.
Indeed, in the presence of lynx, their main natural predator, roe deer
were relatively more diurnal. Overall, our results revealed a strong
influence of human activities and the presence of lynx on diel shifts in
roe deer activity. In the context of the recovery of large carnivores
across Europe, we provide important insights about the effects of
predators on the behavioural responses of their prey in human-dominated
ecosystems. Modifications in the temporal partitioning of ungulate
activity as a response to human activities may facilitate human-wildlife
coexistence, but likely also have knock-on effects for predator-prey
interactions, with cascading effects on ecosystem functioning.
deer_id Roe deer identity – individual-specific unique identifier for each
monitored roe deer year Monitoring year [2003-2015] julian_date Number of
days since January 1st of a given year area_subarea Study area identity
subarea_name Name of the subarea – when several subareas in a given study
site study_name Name of the study site hfi Human Footprint Index – mean
index of the overall level of human activities (based on Venter et al.
2016) within each individual’s seasonal home-ranges [4 - 34]
predator_presence Predation risk - indexed by the presence of lynx and its
relative density for each study site no_lynx = absence of lynx lynx_low =
low density of lynx (sites with transient lynx and densities of ~ 1
lynx/100km²) lynx_high = high density of lynx (sites with densities of ~ 2
lynx/100km²) sex m = males f = females diurnality_index Index of
diurnality (continuous) – relative level of activity during daylight
compared to nighttime for each individual on each given day (see more
details on the calculation in the manuscript) crepuscularity_index Index
of crepuscularity – relative level of activity during daylight compared to
nighttime for each individual on each given day (see more details on the
calculation in the manuscript) day_period Period of the day related to the
crepuscularity index (sunset or sunrise)