Australian Marsupials Fear Humans Far More Than Any Other Predator, New Study Shows
May 23, 2024 by News Staff
Scientists from the University of Tasmania and Western University hoave experimentally demonstrated that kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials most fear the human ‘super predator,’ fleeing humans 2.4 times more often than any other predator.
Recent experiments have demonstrated that carnivores and ungulates in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America fear the human ‘super predator’ far more than other predators. Australian mammals have been a focus of research on predator naiveté because it is suspected they show atypical responses. To experimentally test if mammals in Australia also most fear humans, McGann et al. quantified the responses of four native marsupials (eastern gray kangaroo, Bennett’s wallaby, Tasmanian pademelon, common brushtail possum) and introduced fallow deer to playbacks of predator (human, dog, Tasmanian devil, wolf) or non-predator control (sheep) vocalizations. Image credit: Pen_ash.
Paramount fear of humans has been demonstrated to pervade wildlife communities in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America consistent with humans worldwide being a super predator, far more lethal than other predators.
Australian marsupials have been thought predator naïve based on responses to non-human predators.
“Our results greatly expand the growing experimental evidence that wildlife worldwide perceive humans as the planet’s most frightening predator,” said Western University’s Professor Liana Zanette, co-senior author of a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“The very substantial fear of humans demonstrated here, and in comparable recent experiments, can be expected to have dramatic ecological consequences, because other new research has established that fear itself can reduce wildlife numbers, and fear of humans can cause cascading impacts on multiple species throughout entire landscapes.”
More:
https://www.sci.news/biology/human-super-predator-12958.html