Data from: Naiveté is not forever: responses of a vulnerable native rodent to its long term alien predators

Alien predators have wreaked havoc on isolated endemic and island fauna worldwide, a phenomenon generally attributed to prey naiveté, or a failure to display effective antipredator behaviour due to a lack of experience. While the failure to recognise and/or respond to a novel predator has devastating impacts in the short term after predators are introduced, few studies have asked whether medium to long term experience with alien predators enables native species to overcome their naiveté. In Australia, introduced dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and cats (Felis catus) have caused rapid extinctions and declines in small-medium sized native mammals since they were introduced ~150 years ago. However, native wildlife have had ~4000 years experience with another dog – the dingo (Canis lupus dingo). Native bush rats (Rattus fuscipes) remain common despite predation from these predators. We predicted that prior experience with dingoes would mean that bush rats recognise and respond to dogs, but suspect that hundreds of years experience may not be enough for effective responses to cats and foxes. To test these predictions, we combined the giving-up density (GUD) with analysis of remote camera footage to measure bush rat foraging and behavioural responses to body odour from dogs, foxes, cats and native spotted-tail quolls (Dasyurus maculatus). Bush rats responded strongly to dogs with increased GUDs, increased vigilance and decreased foraging. However, mixed responses to foxes and cats suggest that at least some individuals remain naïve towards these predators. Naiveté is not necessarily forever: alien predators devastate many native prey species, but others may learn or adapt to the new threat.

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Data for DryadData used to create Figures 1 and 2.

异域捕食者在全球范围内对孤立的内陆和岛屿动物群落造成了灾难性的破坏，这一现象通常归因于猎物的天真，即由于缺乏经验而未能展现有效的抗捕食行为。尽管在捕食者引入后短期内，未能识别和/或响应新型捕食者会产生毁灭性的影响，但很少有研究探讨过与异域捕食者的中长期经验是否能够使本地物种克服其天真。在澳大利亚，自150年前引入以来，外来犬类（Canis lupus familiaris）、狐狸（Vulpes vulpes）和猫（Felis catus）已导致小型至中型本地哺乳动物的迅速灭绝和数量下降。然而，本地野生动物与另一种犬类——野狗（Canis lupus dingo）已有约4000年的相处经验。尽管遭受这些捕食者的捕食，本地灌木鼠（Rattus fuscipes）依然普遍存在。我们预测，与野狗的先前经验将意味着灌木鼠能够识别并响应犬类，但怀疑数百年的经验可能不足以对猫和狐狸产生有效的反应。为了验证这些预测，我们将放弃密度（GUD）与远程摄像头录像分析相结合，以测量灌木鼠对犬类、狐狸、猫以及本地斑点尾野猫（Dasyurus maculatus）体味的觅食和行为反应。灌木鼠对犬类表现出强烈的反应，表现为GUD增加、警觉性提高以及觅食减少。然而，对狐狸和猫的混合反应表明，至少有一部分个体对这些捕食者仍保持天真。天真并非永恒不变：异域捕食者摧毁了许多本地猎物种群，但其他物种可能通过学习或适应新的威胁而生存下来。

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DryadData数据用于创建图1和图2。