Publications by authors named "Mark Zornes"
Predation risk is a function of spatiotemporal overlap between predator and prey, as well as behavioural responses during encounters. Dynamic factors (e.g.
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- Resource availability influences animal behavior and population dynamics, with particular focus on how coyotes adjust their movement and selections based on the birth pulses of mule deer neonates, which are temporary but high-energy resources.
- The study evaluated coyote behavior during various reproductive stages of mule deer in southwest Wyoming, predicting that coyotes would change their resource selection and search strategies in response to the timing and availability of these vulnerable deer.
- Results showed that coyotes not only targeted areas with high chances of finding female mule deer but also intensified their searching behaviors during peak mule deer birth periods, highlighting their adaptation to exploit these ephemeral food sources.
Understanding factors that influence animal behavior is central to ecology. Basic principles of animal ecology imply that individuals should seek to maximize survival and reproduction, which means carefully weighing risk against reward. Decisions become increasingly complex and constrained, however, when risk is spatiotemporally variable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuccessfully perceiving risk and reward is fundamental to the fitness of an animal, and can be achieved through a variety of perception tactics. For example, mesopredators may "directly" perceive risk by visually observing apex predators, or may "indirectly" perceive risk by observing habitats used by predators. Direct assessments should more accurately characterize the arrangement of risk and reward; however, indirect assessments are used more frequently in studies concerning the response of GPS-marked animals to spatiotemporally variable sources of risk and reward.
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