A new study demonstrates that kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials fear humans far more than any other predator.
Australia lacks fearsome large carnivores like lions and wolves, and the relative lack of fear that marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies show to dogs has been attributed to a lack of evolutionary experience with large mammalian predators. This, however, overlooks the 50,000-year-long presence in Australia of the world's most fearsome predator -- the human 'super predator.'
For this new study, Zanette and her colleagues worked in the eucalypt forest in Tasmania and experimentally demonstrated that kangaroos, wallabies and other marsupials were 2.4 times more likely to flee in response to hearing human voices compared to hearing dogs, Tasmanian devils or wolves.
To conduct their experiment, the team deployed hidden automated camera-speaker systems that, when triggered by an animal passing within a short distance , filmed the response to humans speaking calmly, dogs barking, Tasmanian devils snarling, wolves howling or non-threatening controls, such as sheep bleating.
Australian rock-wallabies are 'little Napoleons' when it comes to compensating for small size, packing much more punch into their bite than larger relatives. Researchers made the discovery ...
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