Support Needs of Family Caregivers During Tracheostomy Transitions: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Invasive predators are a major driver of biodiversity loss, with an estimated 738 vertebrate species becoming extinct or endangered due to the impacts of just 30 introduced predators worldwide (). While the impacts of direct consumptive effects of predators on prey populations are clear, predators can also exert strong nonconsumptive effects that disrupt behavior, physiology, and reproduction, without direct predation (). These effects are frequently described within the framework of a “landscape of fear,” in which prey adjust behavior according to perceived predation risk across space and time (). Since such responses can hinder growth, survival, and reproductive success, nonconsumptive effects represent a critical but often underappreciated means through which invasive predators impact native populations. Additionally, if non-consumptive effects depend on evolved recognition, then invasive predators may not be recognized as threatening, which in turn can impact native populations (). Parental care is likely to be especially sensitive to nonconsumptive effects because parents must simultaneously protect themselves while caring for their offspring. In many systems, anti-predator responses during reproduction involve tradeoffs between current reproductive investment and parental survival, and these tradeoffs can vary depending on environmental context, offspring state, and predator type (; ; ). For nest-tending species, predator exposure may influence how quickly parents resume care following predator exposure, how much effort they allocate to caring for offspring, and how they balance competing risks to themselves and offspring. Tradeoffs between parental investment and survival may be amplified in the presence of invasive predators. Native prey are expected to have evolutionary history with established predators, resulting in adaptive antipredator responses. Invasive predators, however, may introduce unfamiliar cues or alter predation environments in ways that disrupt evolved decision-making processes (). As a result, responses to invasive predators may be weak, generalized, or mismatched relative to responses to native predators. There is an increasing amount of work describing nonconsumptive effects of predation on parental effects, showing predators can impact populations across time (); yet we know less about short-term effects of invasive predators on parenting. This represents an important gap, as changes in parental behavior can have cascading consequences for offspring and thus species survival (; ).