Research overview: habitat domain and the landscape of fear framework

An overview of how the spatial scale at which predators and prey use the landscape, their habitat domains, determines the strength and form of fear effects. When an ambush felid has a narrow, predictable habitat domain, prey can learn and avoid the risky locations, producing strong behaviorally mediated effects; when predators range widely or hunt unpredictably, prey cannot easily map risk. This survey synthesizes the habitat-domain and hunting-mode framework, explaining why stalking cats such as pumas and tigers generate steeper, more localized landscapes of fear than wide-ranging coursing predators. It links these concepts to trophic-cascade strength and to the design of studies measuring nonconsumptive predator effects, clarifying when fear from felids should reshape prey distribution and downstream vegetation.