Prey jitters; protean behaviour in grouped prey
Prey jitters; protean behaviour in grouped prey
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/beheco/arr062
复制
发表时间：
2011-07-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Ruxton, Graeme D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jones, Katherine A.;Jackson, Andrew L.;Ruxton, Graeme D.
关于被捕食动物的所谓“变化无常”或不可预测的逃生策略，有许多描述性的描述。假设捕食者将很难通过猎物的逃逸轨迹和/或通过增强混淆效应(降低跟踪一组移动的和表型相似的猎物中的单个目标的能力)瞄准更多多变的猎物。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究检验多变的运动是否如预测的那样降低了捕食风险。在这篇文章中，我们用人类作为模型捕食者，测试在转角上有更大变化(因此突然改变方向，而不是在更平滑的轨迹上移动)的“多变”猎物是否更难捕捉，以及这是否与混淆效应(以前使用相同的模型系统发现)相互作用。我们发现，多变的猎物明显更难捕获。然而，多变的行为并没有增强混淆效果。我们认为，多变运动的主要目的可能只是为了使捕食者更难追逐和捕获猎物，从而增加捕食者更快放弃追逐的可能性，而且这种多变的行为不一定取决于猎物的聚集。
There have been many descriptive accounts of so-called "protean" or unpredictable escape tactics in prey animals. It is assumed that predators will have difficulty targeting more protean prey either via the prey's escape trajectory and/or via enhancement of the confusion effect (reduced ability to track an individual target in a group of moving and phenotypically similar prey). However, to date no studies have examined whether protean movements decrease predation risk as predicted. In this paper we test, using humans as model predators, whether "protean" prey that have a higher variance in turning angle (and thus change direction abruptly, rather than move on a smoother trajectory) are more difficult to capture and whether this interacts with the confusion effect (previously found using the same model system). We found that protean prey were significantly more difficult to capture. However, protean behaviour did not enhance the confusion effect. We suggest that the primary purpose of protean movements may simply be to make it more difficult for a predator to chase and capture prey, increasing the likelihood predators will give up chase sooner, and that such protean behaviour need not be contingent on prey aggregation.