The educated prey: consequences for exploitation and control

There is convincing evidence that, in addition to improving their responses to natural predators, animals can also learn from their experience with human exploiters or man-made kill and capture devices. Despite its potential importance, the effect of improved defences to general exploitation (including human harvest) has received little attention so far. To address this void, and to link with practical considerations for management of exploited populations, we develop a general exploitation model with separate states for naive and educated individuals. We then evaluate and illustrate the relevance of acquired/improved defences for the dynamics of exploited populations and their management by applying the modeling framework to 2 management spheres with global scope, harvesting of wildlife populations, and control of invasive species. The strength of the predicted influence of educating prey on population and exploitation dynamics was positively affected by the intensity of exploitation and initial survival of naive individuals and negatively by the speed of life history of the target populations. We also demonstrate that the potential for response loss can lead to counterintuitive results with respect to effort and yield. Our model provides a framework for exploring adaptive behavior in the context of exploitation and for making both qualitative and quantitative predictions. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.