Alex Potash

University of Florida | UF · Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Prey can use several information sources (cues) to assess predation risk and avoid predation with a variety of behavioural responses (e.g., changes in activity, foraging, vigilance, social behaviour, space use, and reproductive behaviour). Direct cues produced by predators and indirect cues from environmental features or conspecific and heterospeci...

Animals are faced with a variety of dangers or threats, which are increasing in frequency with ongoing environmental change. While our understanding of fearfulness of such dangers is growing in the context of predation and parasitism risk, the extent to which non-trophic, interspecific dangers elicit fear in animals remains less appreciated. We pro...

Many ecologists increasingly advocate for research frameworks centered on the use of 'big data' to address anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems. Yet, experiments are often considered essential for identifying mechanisms and informing conservation interventions. We highlight the complementarity of these research frameworks and expose largely untapped...

Megaherbivores play a critical role in the ecology of African savannas and grasslands. In addition, these systems are forecast to experience more frequent and severe droughts as a product of changes in the global climate. Thus, the continued conservation of megaherbivores and their associated ecosystems will require a better understanding of how me...

The decline of terrestrial predator populations across the globe is altering top-down pressures that drive predator–prey interactions. However, a knowledge gap remains in understanding how removing terrestrial predators affects prey behavior. Using a bifactorial playback experiment, we exposed fox squirrels to predator (red-tailed hawks, coyotes, d...

Individuals who are interested in wildlife‐related careers take unpaid positions to gain experience and remain competitive in the job market. However, unpaid positions may not provide the same training, skills acquisition, or long‐term success as paid positions. We surveyed 796 graduates of wildlife‐related bachelor's degree programs from accredite...

Disturbances such as fire play an important role in shaping forests and the wildlife they support. As such, forest managers employ prescribed fire to restore ecosystem function, promote forest biodiversity, and maintain wildlife habitat. To better understand how bats respond to variation in fire regime, we used acoustic recorders to quantify bat ac...

The color patterns of an animal’s pelage, feather, or skin serve a variety of adaptive functions; importantly, one function is concealment through background matching. In spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments, some species exhibit multiple distinct color patterns within a population (i.e., color polymorphism). The environmental driver...

An animal’s pelage, feather, or skin color can serve a variety of functions, so it is important to have multiple standardized methods for measuring color. One of the most common and reliable methods for measuring animal coloration is the use of standardized digital photographs of animals. New technology in the form of a commercially available handh...

Many sympatric species use Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise) burrows as refugia from predators, extreme temperatures, and fire. As part of an ongoing project involving trail-camera monitoring at Gopher Tortoise burrows, we observed a Sciurus niger (Eastern Fox Squirrel) sheltering in an occupied burrow twice in a single day. Eastern Fox Squirre...

An animal's perception of predation risk varies across a heterogeneous landscape. Animals rely on indirect cues in the environment, including availability of protective cover, openness of sightlines and distance to refuge to evaluate potential predation risk. Interactions between the indirect cues that influence an animal's perception of predation...

Animals change their daily activity patterns in response to season, food availability and the presence of competitors. Competition may be an important driver of a species' daily activity pattern, as animals manage conflict by avoiding each other temporally. We evaluated how vegetation structure and the presence of competitors changed the daily acti...

We observed a series of long-distance movements by an adult male Sciurus Niger (Eastern Fox Squirrel). The squirrel traveled 1040 m between 25 May and 27 May, and ≥503 m on 5 separate occasions between 29 April and 25 May 2017. The individual traveled between experimental foraging sites and was photographed by remote cameras placed at each site. Th...