Wolf risk fails to inspire fear in two mesocarnivores suggesting facilitation prevails

Large carnivores not only supress mesocarnivores via killing and instilling fear, but also facilitate them through carrion provisioning. Hence, mesocarnivores frequently face a trade-off between risk avoidance and food acquisition. Here we used the raccoon dog and red fox in Bialowieza Forest, Poland as models for investigating how large carnivores shape mesocarnivore foraging behaviour in an area with widespread large carnivore carrion provisioning. Using a giving up density experiment we quantified mesocarnivore foraging responses to wolf body odour across a landscape-scale gradient in wolf encounter rates. At locations with higher wolf encounter rates, raccoon dogs depleted feeding trays more than at plots with lower wolf encounter rates. Simulating wolf presence by adding wolf body odour caused raccoon dogs to deplete feeding trays more at locations with low wolf encounter rates, but less at locations with high wolf encounter rates. Fox foraging costs did not vary with the application of wolf body odour or wolf encounter rates. The frequency that the mesocarnivores visited experimental foraging patches was unaffected by wolf body odour or landscape level encounter rates. These results provide further evidence that large carnivore suppression can play a subordinate role to facilitation in determining mesocarnivore behaviour. The varying raccoon dog response to wolf odour across the landscape-scale gradient in wolf encounter rates shows how mesocarnivore-large carnivore interactions can be context-dependent. We suggest that rather than testing the effects of single risk cues on prey behaviour, future studies should focus on understanding how context modifies the ecological impacts of large carnivores.

Automated summary

This study investigates how large carnivores shape mesocarnivore foraging behavior. The results show that large carnivores not only facilitate mesocarnivores through carrion provisioning but also suppress them via killing and instilling fear. The foraging response of mesocarnivores is influenced by wolf encounter rates, while the foraging costs of foxes are unaffected. These findings suggest that the role of large carnivores in determining mesocarnivore behavior may be subordinate and that the interactions between mesocarnivores and large carnivores may be context-dependent.