Antipredator responses could affect nutrient intake, which could lead to nutritional deficits. However, little is known about the antipredator response of small herbivores because most are nocturnal or crepuscular and therefore very difficult to study in the field. Therefore, we experimentally assessed …

Since the return of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in the Netherlands in 2015, much research has been done on the ecology and distribution of the species. This has led to a dietary study using hair- and DNA-sampling of wolf scats, and preliminary analyses of DNA in wolf scats showed that DNA from non-prey, …

Residing atop the trophic ladder, the jaguar plays a crucial role in the functioning, stability, and resilience of neotropical forest ecosystems. They influence the entire food web and have wide-ranging effects on various ecological processes. However, jaguars are a highly at-risk and near-threatened …

Diadema sea urchins (Diadema antillarum) are important algae grazers, but restoration attempts often record low survival of restocked individuals. This article sheds light on one of the causes for unsuccessful restocking. Restocked sea urchins were monitored with time-lapse cameras for 10 days. There …

Predation risk is a major driver of the distribution of prey animals, which typically show strong responses to cues for predator presence. An unresolved question is whether naïve individuals respond to mimicked cues, and whether such cues can be used to deter prey. We investigated whether playback of …

1. We assessed the hypothesized negative correlation between the influence of multiple predators and body condition and fecundity of the European hare, from 13 areas in the Netherlands. 2. Year-round abundance of predators was estimated by hunters. We quantified predator influence as the sum of their …

We humans have characteristics of both prey and predators. As mammals, great apes are also roughly in the middle of the food chain, although technology (fire, leverage and language) has enabled us to manoeuvre ourselves upwards on our own. Digital (mass) communication technology helps us to strengthen …

This study shows that the main predation pressure in the Dutch Wadden Sea is found to be on calanoid copepods, being the main prey item of C. harengus, A. tobianus, C. edulis, A. aurita and M. leidyi. Bivalve veligers are also found to be widely ingested by predator species, with the main predators being …

The natural value of Dutch sandy beaches has been declining for decades. These relatively unstable, low nutritious, wave-washed environments lack the primary producers that represent the base of the food web. Thus, the sandy beach food web relies almost entirely on nutrient influx of other systems. Beside …

Camera trap technology has galvanized the study of predator-prey ecology in wild animal communities by expanding the scale and diversity of predator-prey interactions that can be analyzed. While observational data from systematic camera arrays have informed inferences on the spatiotemporal outcomes of …