Ecology of fear:
The ecology of fear is a conceptual framework describing the psychological impact that predator-induced stress experienced by animals has on populations and ecosystems. Within ecology, the impact of predators has been traditionally viewed as limited to the animals that they directly kill, while the ecology of fear advances evidence that predators may have a far more substantial impact on the individuals that they predate, reducing fecundity, survival and population sizes.[1][2] To avoid being killed, animals that are preyed upon will employ anti-predator defenses which aid survival but may carry substantial costs. [Wikipedia]
Noted in “How a rodent’s fear of cats shapes rainforests in Panama,” Jake Buehler, NewScientist (12 March 2022, paywall):
A game of cat and mouse is playing out in Panama’s rainforests, with large rodents called agoutis using their keen sense of smell to avoid ocelots that hunt them. The fear the rodents have for these predators and the ways it directs their behaviour have ripple effects that could alter the diversity of plants around them.
Most research on this “ecology of fear” has been centred on temperate ecosystems, says Dumas Gálvez at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City. To see how the phenomenon could play out in the tropics, he and Marisol Hernández at the University of Panama looked to Central American agoutis (Dasyprocta punctata) and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis).
