Prey defences: mechanisms, evolution and ecology

猎物防御：机制、进化和生态学

• 批准号: 341684-2007
• 负责人: Lingle, Susan
• 金额: $ 1.51万
• 依托单位: University of Lethbridge
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=364310
• 关键词: Prey; defences; mechanisms; evolution; ecology

SOME prey animals hide from predators. Some run away. Still others counterattack. This research investigates evolutionary and ecological processes leading to variation in prey defences, and the influence of prey defences on an animal's social behaviour, parental care and ecological patterns.   I will address the question of why some animals appear to altruistically defend individuals that are not their own offspring against predators. Even though examples of selfless behaviour are common in the animal world, we do not expect such behaviour to arise through natural selection. Through previous work with mule deer (a seemingly altruistic animal that defends fawns from another species!), I ruled out the possibility that females defend non-offspring because they mistake them for their own, and the common idea that females only help close relatives so as to pass on their shared genes. I will now test the hypothesis that the defence of non-offspring is a spillover of a female's motivation to defend her own fawn. A rigid response to any distress call may ensure a female defends her own fawn when it is in need, even if it has the drawback of leading her to defend many other animals.   In another line of research, I will observe natural encounters between predators and prey (coyotes, deer, and two species of ground squirrels) in a prairie landscape to determine how the behaviour and density of prey animals affect a predator's hunting success and its decision to hunt one species of prey rather than another.   This research will advance our understanding of the evolution of prey defences and intertwined patterns of social behaviour and parental care. It will also provide insight into the way the behaviour of individual prey and predators shapes survival patterns of prey. This research is applicable to conservation. It will increase our understanding of the way coyotes affect native prey species on Canada's native prairie grassland, a habitat supporting a disproportionate share of endangered species.

有些被捕食的动物会躲避捕食者。有些人逃跑了。其他人反击。本研究调查导致猎物防御变化的进化和生态过程，以及猎物防御对动物的社会行为，父母的照顾和生态模式的影响。 我将讨论为什么有些动物会无私地保护不是自己后代的个体免受捕食者的侵害。尽管无私行为的例子在动物世界中很常见，但我们并不认为这种行为是通过自然选择产生的。通过以前对黑尾鹿（一种看似无私的动物，可以保护小鹿免受其他物种的伤害！）的研究，我排除了雌性保护非后代的可能性，因为它们误认为它们是自己的，以及雌性只帮助近亲以传递共享基因的普遍想法。我现在将检验一个假设，即保护非后代是雌性保护自己小鹿的动机的溢出。对任何求救信号的僵硬反应可以确保雌性在需要的时候保护自己的小鹿，即使它有导致她保护许多其他动物的缺点。 在另一项研究中，我将观察草原景观中捕食者和猎物（郊狼，鹿和两种地松鼠）之间的自然遭遇，以确定猎物动物的行为和密度如何影响捕食者的狩猎成功及其狩猎一种猎物的决定。 这项研究将推进我们对猎物防御进化的理解，以及社会行为和父母照顾的交织模式。它还将提供洞察个体猎物和捕食者的行为如何塑造猎物的生存模式。这项研究适用于保护。它将增加我们对土狼影响加拿大原生草原上的原生猎物物种的方式的理解，这是一个支持不成比例的濒危物种的栖息地。