Animal camouflage: compromise or specialize in a 2 patch-type environment?
Animal camouflage: compromise or specialize in a 2 patch-type environment?
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DOI：
10.1093/beheco/arm039
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发表时间：
2007-07-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Cuthill, Innes C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Houston, Alasdair I.;Stevens, Martin;Cuthill, Innes C.
许多动物都有伪装标记，以减少被视觉捕食者发现的风险。伪装的一个关键方面是模仿观察动物的背景。然而，大多数动物都经历了各种各样的背景，不能有选择地改变它们的外表来适应每种背景。我们研究了这些动物是否应该采用一种特定背景的伪装，还是采用多种背景属性之间的折衷。我们使用了一个模型，这个模型由捕食者组成，捕食者在两种不同类型的斑块上捕食猎物，其中猎物采用伪装，将个体被捕食的风险降到最低。研究结果表明，捕食者的最优策略受多种因素的影响，包括斑块类型的相对频率、捕食者在斑块之间的移动时间、每个斑块类型的平均猎物数量以及斑块类型中隐密程度之间的权衡函数。我们发现有证据表明，在不同的模型参数下，猎物伪装的专业策略和妥协策略都是有利的，这表明最佳隐藏可能不像以前认为的那样简单。
Many animals possess camouflage markings that reduce the risk of detection by visually hunting predators. A key aspect of camouflage involves mimicking the background against which the animal is viewed. However, most animals experience a wide variety of backgrounds and cannot change their external appearance to match each selectively. We investigate whether such animals should adopt camouflage specialized with respect to one background or adopt a compromise between the attributes of multiple backgrounds. We do this using a model consisting of predators that hunt prey in patches of 2 different types, where prey adopt the camouflage that minimizes individual risk of predation. We show that the optimal strategy of the prey is affected by a number of factors, including the relative frequencies of the patch types, the travel time of predators between patches, the mean prey number in each patch type, and the trade-off function between the levels of crypsis in the patch types. We find evidence that both specialist and compromise strategies of prey camouflage are favored tinder different model parameters, indicating that optimal concealment may not be as straightforward as previously thought.