)Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park was in the science news last week, which caught my eye because I had recently read Sean B. Carroll’s The Serengeti Rules. (Scientist/authors are rare, and yet biologist Sean B. Carroll must distinguish himself from physicist Sean Carroll.) Gorongosa features in the book as one of several locations where large-scale ecological experiments have been conducted under resource management initiatives. The general question is how to achieve a thriving ecosystem with a complete food web in national parks, managed lakes & streams, and other natural resources. In Gorongosa, one of the specific issues is how to keep antelopes and other herbivores from overgrazing. The current research examines whether predator cues such as sounds and smells are sufficient to keep the antelope away from targeted grasslands, or if actual predators and actual predation are necessary.
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