Top carnivores increase kill rates in response to human-induced fear

Studying pumas around human development in California, this research found that cougars exposed to greater human presence killed more prey, apparently to compensate for abandoning kills and spending less time feeding when disturbed. The behavioural response to perceived human risk thus increased per-capita predation pressure on prey such as deer, illustrating an indirect ecological cost of the landscape of fear created by people. The work linked individual behavioural adjustments near the urban edge to community-level consequences, showing that human disturbance reshapes not just where carnivores live but how intensely they hunt, with implications for prey populations near cities.