Mesopredator suppression by an apex predator alleviates the risk of predation perceived by small prey

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Predators can impact their prey via consumptive effects that occur through direct killing, and via non-consumptive effects that arise when the behaviour and phenotypes of prey shift in response to the risk of predation. Although predators' consumptive effects can have cascading population-level effects on species at lower trophic levels there is less evidence that predators' non-consumptive effects propagate through ecosystems. Here we provide evidence that suppression of abundance and activity of a mesopredator (the feral cat) by an apex predator (the dingo) has positive effects on both abundance and foraging efficiency of a desert rodent. Then by manipulating predators' access to food patches we further the idea that apex predators provide small prey with refuge from predation by showing that rodents increased their habitat breadth and use of ‘risky′ food patches where an apex predator was common but mesopredators rare. Our study suggests that apex predators' suppressive effects on mesopredators extend to alleviate both mesopredators' consumptive and non-consumptive effects on prey. Gordon.et.al.2015_Data Excel file containing raw data used in analyses. The Experiment 1 tab holds data relating to the Experiment 1 section of the paper. The Experiment 2 tab holds data relating to the Experiment 2 section of the paper. The Abundance_SpotlightData tab holds data relating to the Dingo, fox, cat and N. fuscus abundance section of the paper.