Human persecution as an evolutionary driver of individual variation in risk perception of an apex predator.

• Applicant: Dr. Anne Gabriela Hertel
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448621093

Behavior plays a pivotal role in shaping predator-prey interactions with prey showing remarkable adaptive behavioral plasticity in response to predation risk. In the wild, predation risk is variable in space and time which creates a landscape of fear through which prey species move. Experimental behavioral ecologists have studied individual variation in prey responsiveness to risk for the past two decades, however individual variation has not been formally integrated into landscapes of risk in the wild. I will use the brown bear (Ursus arctos) as a model species to test predictions from behavioral ecology theory in the wild. As apex members of the trophic community, the brown bear’s landscape of fear consists of a single predator – humans. For no other predator do we have such excellent records of the intensity of past and current predation pressure (i.e. hunting), as well as spatiotemporal predator presence, as we do for humans. I will evaluate the extent, heritability, life history consequences, and evolutionary drivers of individual variation in human avoidance behavior of brown bears. I have access to a unique dataset of long-term monitoring data (> 25 years) of brown bears in Sweden, including movement data for more than 170 individuals, documentation of complete life histories (e.g. annual reproduction, survival), annual diet and stress metabolite determination, and a pedigree spanning 7 generations and virtually the entire study population. This dataset will enable me to answer questions related to the extent and heritability of individual variation in spatiotemporal human avoidance behavior and the life-history consequences (e.g. through lost feeding opportunities) arising from human-avoidance behavior. If behavioral variability is heritable, human hunting may selectively target and remove certain behavioral types from the population leading to less behavioral variability in remnant populations. I will test this hypothesis in a natural experiment by compiling movement behavior data from 10 extant brown bear populations world-wide which have been exposed to different historic persecution pressures. I will test whether the long and selective persecution history in Europe has eroded behavioral variability as compared to the comparably short and unselective persecution in North America. My proposed project will answer research questions at the forefront of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. To answer my research objectives, I will join Niels Dingemanse’s behavioral ecology group at the Faculty of Biology at LMU. His group works on research question of how variation among and within individuals interact with ecology to produce adaptive behaviour in natural populations and is therefore an ideal fit for my proposed project and my development as an independent researcher.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants