Beyond the ecology of fear: non-lethal effects of predators are strong whereas those of parasites are diverse

Abstract

The ecology of fear demonstrates how prey responses to avoid predation cause non-lethal effects at all ecological scales. Parasites also elicit defensive responses in hosts with associated non-lethal effects, which raises the longstanding, yet unresolved question of how non-lethal effects of parasites compare with those of predators. We developed a framework for systematically answering this question for all types of predator and parasite systems. Our framework predicts that trait responses and their non-lethal effects should be strongest from predators and parasites that do not kill individuals to feed on them, but which nevertheless damage fitness. Analysing trait response data on amphibians, which have been well-studied for this area of research, showed that individuals generally responded more directly to short-term predation risks than to parasitism. Apart from studies using amphibians, there have been few direct comparisons of responses to predation and parasitism, and none have incorporated responses to micropredators, parasitoids, or parasitic castrators, or examined their long-term consequences. Addressing these and other data gaps highlighted by our general framework can advance the field toward understanding how non-lethal effects shape real food webs, which contain multiple predator and parasite species.