Ecologists find a ‘landscape of fearlessness’ in a war-torn savannah

Using a series of well-designed experiments in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, a research team confirmed each step in a trophic cascade between the elimination of predators (including leopards, African wild dogs, and hyenas) and growth of local plants. They demonstrated that the fear of predators alone can drive change in herbivore behaviors in large-mammal ecosystems.