Laboratory experiments reveal effects of group size on hunting performance in yellow saddle goatfish, Parupeneus cyclostomus
Laboratory experiments reveal effects of group size on hunting performance in yellow saddle goatfish, Parupeneus cyclostomus
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实验室实验揭示了群体大小对黄鞍鲣鱼（Parupeneus cyclostomus）狩猎性能的影响
DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.08.018
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
R. Bshary
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Marc Steinegger;Hanaa Sarhan;R. Bshary
研究了群体大小对黄鞍山山羊捕食成功率的影响。群体狩猎者比单个狩猎者捕获猎物的速度更快，概率更高。个体单独狩猎和群体狩猎的成功率没有相关性。合作狩猎的个体在群体中比单独狩猎表现得更好。两个或更多个体追逐同一猎物的群体狩猎发生在各种脊椎动物分支中。它的进化通常归因于由此增加的猎物捕获率。事实上，许多研究已经证明了个体数量和成功概率之间的正相关关系，这表明联合狩猎是合作的。然而，所有关于脊椎动物的现有数据都是基于实地观察，因此无法控制可能影响狩猎成功的因素，如栖息地结构的变化、狩猎动机或猎物状态。因此，我们进行了室内对照实验，考察了群体狩猎黄鞍山山羊的狩猎行为是否受到群体大小的影响。我们在人工珊瑚礁中展示了无脊椎动物的猎物，并测量了狩猎行为作为操纵群体规模的函数，范围从1到4个个体。我们发现，单独狩猎的个体在试验时间限制内未能捕获猎物的情况明显多于群体。此外，我们发现直到捕获的时间取决于群体大小，单个最慢，而四个群体最快。除了少数例外，群体成员捕获猎物的可能性几乎相等。单个个体的狩猎成功并不能预测个体在群体中捕获猎物的概率，这表明群体狩猎涉及一些生产者-拾取者的动态。总之，虽然实验不能解决群体大小如何影响个体净卡路里摄入量的问题，但结果表明，群体比单个个体更能成功地狩猎。
HighlightsWe studied the effect of group size on hunting success in yellow saddle goatfish.Groups catch prey faster and with higher probabilities than singleton hunters.No correlation of individuals' hunting success rates when alone versus in groups.Collaboratively hunting individuals perform better in groups than alone.Group hunting where two or more individuals chase the same prey occurs in various vertebrate clades. Its evolution has typically been attributed to the resulting increased prey capture rate. Indeed, many studies have documented positive correlations between the number of individuals and probability of success, suggesting that joint hunting is cooperative. However, all existing data on vertebrates are based on field observations and hence cannot control for factors that may also influence hunting success, such as variation in habitat structure, hunting motivation or prey state. Therefore, we conducted controlled laboratory experiments to test whether hunting performance is affected by group size in the group-hunting yellow saddle goatfish. We presented invertebrate prey in an artificial coral reef and measured hunting performance as a function of manipulated group size, ranging from one to four individuals. We found that individuals hunting alone failed to catch the prey within the trial time limit significantly more often than groups did. Furthermore, we found that time until capture depended on group size, with singletons being slowest and groups of four fastest. With few exceptions, group members were approximately equally likely to catch prey. Hunting success as a singleton did not predict an individual's prey capture probability when in a group, suggesting that group hunting involves some producer–scrounger dynamics. In conclusion, while the experiment cannot address the question of how group size affects individual net calorie intake, the results show that groups are more successful at hunting than singletons are.