Predator Effects on Metamorphosis: The Effects of Scaring Versus Thinning at High Prey Densities

Organisms with complex life cycles face the challenge of when to switch between habitats and foraging strategies over ontogeny in ways that improve their fitness. Metamorphosis is a well-studied life history event in animals, and ecologists have spent decades trying to understand how the size at and time to metamorphosis are altered by natural stressors such as competition and predation. The challenges in interpreting the effects of predators on metamorphic decisions include the need to compare predator species that pose different levels of risk, compare the roles of predators inducing fear versus thinning of the density of prey, and examine prey life history traits and behavior over ontogeny. We addressed these challenges in a mesocosm experiment in which we introduced a high initial density of hatchling Northern Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens) and exposed them to three different species of caged predators (to induce three different levels of fear), three rates of hand-thinning (to mimic the thinning effect of each predator), or three species of lethal predators (to cause induction and thinning). Under these initial high densities, we found that caged predators had no effects on tadpole activity, growth, and development. This outcome was likely due to the high density of tadpoles causing high competition, which can inhibit anti predator responses. High rates of hand thinning caused decreased tadpole activity, greater mass, and faster development. Interestingly, lethal predators caused phenotypic changes that were largely in line with the hand-thinning effects alone. These results suggest that at high initial prey densities, the thinning process of predation appears to play a much more important role in prey metamorphosis than induction from predatory chemical cues.