Recovery plans for the Endangered loggerhead marine turtle Caretta caretta cite mammalian predation as a major threat, and recommend nest protection efforts, already present at many rookery beaches, to protect eggs and hatchlings. Nest protection techniques vary but wire box cages and plastic mesh screens are two common tools used to deter predation by a host of beach-foraging, opportunistic ma...

Over time, evolution has shaped the behavior of prey animals such that the need to forage, find mates, and engage in intra-specific competition is balanced with the need to avoid predators (Lima & Dill 1990). Prey have not only evolved strategies to escape a direct attack from a predator, but have also evolved to respond to indirect cues in the environment that indicate predation risk (Orrock e...

Species composition is expected to alter ecological function in assemblages if species traits differ strongly. Such effects are often large and persistent for nonnative carnivores invading islands. Alternatively, high similarity in traits within assemblages creates a degree of functional redundancy in ecosystems. Here we tested whether species turnover results in functional ecological equivalen...

Apex predators are subject to lethal control in many parts of the world to minimize their impacts on human industries and livelihoods. Diverse communities of smaller predators-mesopredators-often remain after apex predator removal. Despite concern that these mesopredators may be 'released' in the absence of the apex predator and exert negative effects on each other and on co-occurring prey, the...

Observations of Canada Lynx (Fe/is lynx) predation on Red Foxes ( Vulpes vulpes) and medium-sized ungulates during winter are reviewed. Characteristics of I 3 successful attacks on Red Foxes and 16 cases of predation on Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and Dall Sheep (Ovis dalli) suggest that Lynx are capable of killing even adults of these species, with foxes being killed most easily. The occurrenc...

Sexually mature male mice of three different strains (CD-1 outbred, CBA, and C57BI/6J inbred) were exposed in an arena to a small black cylinder (35 mm film container), filled with faeces of either a mouse predator (red fox, Vulpes vulpes) or a non-predator (rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus) during a 3 min test. Control animals were given an empty container. Locomotor activity and behavioural resp...