Prey can assess immediate risk of predation by detecting cues of predator presence, and it is expected that prey should invest in costly antipredator behaviors when a cue of predator presence is detected. Features of the habitat in which the cue is detected, such as vegetative concealment, serve as indirect cues of risk and can mediate how prey respond to direct cues of predator presence. Past agricultural land use and contemporary fire regime are common disturbances that may modify prey perceptions of risk and could therefore alter prey responses to direct cues of predator presence. We examined whether the overlap of these two disturbances affected white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) responses to cues of predator presence by measuring deer vigilance and foraging bout duration in response to coyote (Canis latrans) vocalizations across 20 woodlands that varied in past land use and contemporary fire regime. Frequent fire regimes consistently increased deer visibility to predators across both land-use history contexts. Deer exhibited no behavioral response to the predator cue in habitats containing infrequent fire regimes or agricultural legacies. Deer responded to the cue in frequently burned woodlands without agricultural legacies through increased vigilance and duration spent at a foraging location. These findings reveal that land-use legacies and contemporary fire regimes can mediate how prey respond to direct cues of risk. They also suggest that prey may balance the uncertainty associated with cues of predation risk with the urgency of responding to a potential attack by being vigilant and remaining in place.

This study was conducted at the Savannah River Site (SRS; Aiken, SC). The number of fires since 1991 was determined from annual fire records, and sites were characterized as low (five or less burns) or high (more than five burns) fire frequency. Sites were not burned the year of the study. Sites that were that were forested in 1951 were classified as “nonagricultural woodlands," and sites that were farmland in 1951 were classified as “post-agricultural woodlands.” 

Photos collected from remote wildlife cameras placed at each site were scored for white-tailed deer vigilance behavior. We used remote cameras to measure deer responses to experimental predator cue (coyote howl). For each day of the 12-day experiment, one location with a camera received one of three treatments: silence, control sound, or predator cue. Vigilance was treated as a binary variable. Raw photo data was summarized by each independent detection of individual deer. Independent detections are referred to as bouts (i.e., foraging bouts) in the dataset. Each independent bout is given a unique ID in the dataset. For each independent bout, we summarized the total number of photos where deer were vigilant. We also recorded the start and end time of each bout. We recorded the individual's sex and whether or not the individual was foraging in a group (i.e., with one or more individual deer). If the individual was foraging in a group, each group member was given a unique identifying letter. The treatment for each day at each location is provided in a separate dataset that is provided here. Deer visibility was measured by a single observer using a density board that estimated percent visibility across 1 x 1 foot quadrats. The density board was placed 15-m from the observer standing at the camera-trap station. The observer took four measurements (one in each cardinal direction from the station) at each site.