Bengsen, A. J., Leung, L. K. P., Lapidge, S. J., & Gordon, I. J. (2010). Artificial illumination reduces bait-take by small rainforest mammals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 127(1-2), 66–72.
Abstract: Small mammals often moderate their foraging behaviour in response to cues indicating a high local predation risk. We assessed the ability of cues associated with a high predation risk to reduce the consumption of bait by non-target small mammal species in a tropical rainforest, without inhibiting bait-take by feral pigs (Sus scrofa). The illumination of feeding stations with a low power light source caused small mammals to reduce their foraging intensity on sunflower seeds mixed through sand by 25% (P< 0.001) and on unprocessed corn-based feral pig bait by 80% (P< 0.001). Illumination also reduced the intensity with which small mammals fed on commercially manufactured baits (odds ratio. = 6.17, P= 0.009). Illumination did not cause pigs to reduce their intake of corn bait (P= 0.43). Neither pig nor dingo (Canis lupus dingo) vocalisations had any detectable effect on the foraging intensity of small mammals (P> 0.05 for all treatments). We conclude that site illumination was an effective method of selectively deterring small mammals from consuming feral pig baits in our study region, but had no effect on consumption of those baits by pigs.
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Canário, F., Hespanhol Leitão, A., & Tomé, R. (2012). Predation Attempts by Short-eared and Long-eared Owls on Migrating Songbirds Attracted to Artificial Lights. Journal of Raptor Research, 46(2), 232–234.
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Cope, K. L., Schook, M. W., & Benard, M. F. (2020). Exposure to artificial light at night during the larval stage has delayed effects on juvenile corticosterone concentration in American toads, Anaxyrus americanus. Gen Comp Endocrinol, in press, 113508.
Abstract: Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) is an environmental stressor that can disrupt individual physiology and ecological interactions. Hormones such as corticosterone are often responsible for mediating an organism's response to environmental stressors. We investigated whether ALAN was associated with a corticosterone response and whether it exacerbated the effects of another common stressor, predation. We tested for consumptive, non-consumptive, and physiological effects of ALAN and predator presence (dragonfly larvae) on a widespread amphibian, the American toad (Anaxyrus americanus). We found predators had consumptive (decreased survival) and non-consumptive (decreased growth) effects on larval toads. ALAN did not affect larval toads nor did it interact with the predator treatment to increase larval toad predation. Despite the consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators, neither predators nor ALAN affected corticosterone concentration in the larval and metamorph life-stages. In contrast to studies in other organisms, we did not find any evidence that suggested ALAN alters predator-prey interactions between dragonfly larvae and toads. However, there was an inverse relationship between corticosterone and survival that was exacerbated by exposure to ALAN when predators were absent. Additionally, larval-stage exposure to ALAN increased corticosterone concentration in juvenile toads. Our results suggest the physiological effects of ALAN may not be demonstrated until later life-stages.
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Kronfeld-Schor, N., Dominoni, D., de la Iglesia, H., Levy, O., Herzog, E. D., Dayan, T., et al. (2013). Chronobiology by moonlight. Proc Biol Sci, 280(1765), 20123088.
Abstract: Most studies in chronobiology focus on solar cycles (daily and annual). Moonlight and the lunar cycle received considerably less attention by chronobiologists. An exception are rhythms in intertidal species. Terrestrial ecologists long ago acknowledged the effects of moonlight on predation success, and consequently on predation risk, foraging behaviour and habitat use, while marine biologists have focused more on the behaviour and mainly on reproduction synchronization with relation to the Moon phase. Lately, several studies in different animal taxa addressed the role of moonlight in determining activity and studied the underlying mechanisms. In this paper, we review the ecological and behavioural evidence showing the effect of moonlight on activity, discuss the adaptive value of these changes, and describe possible mechanisms underlying this effect. We will also refer to other sources of night-time light ('light pollution') and highlight open questions that demand further studies.
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Mavraki, N., Georgiadis, M., Koutsikopoulos, C., & Tzanatos, E. (2016). Unravelling the nocturnal appearance of bogue Boops boops shoals in the anthropogenically modified shallow littoral. J Fish Biol, .
Abstract: In the present study the role of the nocturnal migration of bogue Boops boops shoals to anthropogenically modified shallow littoral locations was examined, evaluating four alternative hypotheses: (1) feeding, (2) reproduction, (3) attraction of B. boops to artificial light and (4) concealment in the darkness related to predation avoidance. All hypotheses apart from predation avoidance were rejected, as B. boops tended to concentrate in shaded locations of wider illuminated areas, a finding not only important concerning fish behaviour, but also with significant management implications.
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