RIG/CAA: Effects of the Trade-off between Visual Acuity and Visual Fields on Anti-predator Behavior in Social Foraging Birds

生物体从收集信息中受益，因为它使它们能够评估替代环境条件（相对于食物，捕食者，配偶等）。再做决定进化生态学的一个主要空白是理解视觉系统的配置如何影响信息收集的成本和收益。这在生活在群体中的视觉导向动物（例如鸟类）中特别有趣，因为它们的视觉环境是复杂的，因为它们可以使用两个信息源（个人和社会），这两个信息源可以影响个体的健康（例如，捕食者检测），以及最终的社会互动（例如，组大小、邻居距离）。例如，动物可以通过自己的警惕行为（个人信息）或通过群伙伴的反捕食者行为（社会信息）来检测捕食者。该项目的目标是研究两个关键的视觉能力（视力和视野的范围）如何影响反捕食者的行为反应，在社会觅食的情况下，使用四种鸟类作为模型：家雀Carpodacus mexicanus，家雀Passer alticus，褐头牛鹂Molothrus ater，和欧洲椋鸟Sturnus vulgaris。一般的假设是，在何种程度上使用视觉社会信息，以尽量减少脆弱性捕食将取决于视敏度和视野之间的权衡。两个预测将得到验证。首先，由于视觉覆盖范围更大，视觉相对较宽且较不敏锐的物种将比视觉相对较窄且更敏锐的物种表现出更低的高质量（抬头）扫描。第二，捕食者检测在物种相对较宽，不太敏锐的视觉系统将受到限制的距离捕食者由于其减少的视觉深度;而在物种相对较窄的视野和更敏锐的视觉，捕食者检测将受到限制的身体姿势和头部方向，由于他们更多的约束视觉覆盖。 这项研究将加强我们对不同视觉系统物种的反捕食行为机制的理解，这可能影响了雀形目鸟类视觉的进化。 新的知识汇集感官生物学和行为生态学将产生和通过跨学科的同行评审的期刊和会议，涉及研究生和本科生作为合著者传达给科学界，并通过非技术出版物奠定观众。将通过各种活动将研究与教学结合起来，总的目标是提高少数民族对进化生物学的兴趣。首先，少数民族高中，本科和研究生将参与该项目。第二，新的讲座和实验室模块将开发对鸟类感官系统的演变。第三，将在少数民族代表性较高的社区的高中举办外展研讨会，以展示人类和鸟类视觉之间的相似性和差异，以及这些差异如何影响行为。第四，将开发一个网页，强调感官和行为生态学跨学科研究的相关性，以了解视觉系统的进化。

Organisms benefit from collecting information because it allows them to assess alternative environmental conditions (relative to food, predators, mates, etc.) before making decisions. One of the main gaps in evolutionary ecology is to understand how the configuration of visual systems influences the costs and benefits of information gathering. This is particularly interesting in visually oriented animals that live in groups, such as birds, because their visual environments are complex, as they can use two sources of information (personal and social) that can affect an individual's fitness (e.g., predator detection), and eventually social interactions (e.g., group size, neighbor distance). For instance, an animal can detect a predator through its own vigilance behavior (personal information) or through the anti-predator behavior of flock mates (social information). The goal of this project is to study how two key visual capacities (visual acuity and the extent of the visual fields) affect anti-predator behavioral responses in social foraging scenarios using four bird species as models: House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus, House Sparrow Passer domesticus, Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater, and European Starling Sturnus vulgaris. The general hypothesis is that the degree to which visual social information is used to minimize vulnerability to predation will depend upon a trade-off between visual acuity and visual fields. Two predictions will be tested. First, species with relatively wide and less acute vision will exhibit less high-quality (head-up) scanning than species with relatively narrow and more acute vision due to greater visual coverage. Second, predator detection in species with relatively wide and less acute visual systems will be limited by the distance to the predator due to their reduced depth of vision; whereas in species with relatively narrow visual fields and more acute vision, predator detection will be limited by body posture and head-orientation due to their more constrained visual coverage. This study will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in anti-predator behavior in species with different visual systems, which may have influenced the evolution of vision in passerine birds. New knowledge bringing together sensory biology and behavioral ecology will be produced and communicated to the scientific community through inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journals and meetings, involving graduate and undergraduate students as coauthors, and to lay audiences through a non-technical publication. Research will be integrated with teaching through different activities with the general goal of heightening the interest of minorities in evolutionary biology. First, minority high school, undergraduate, and graduate students will be involved in the project. Second, new lecture and lab modules will be developed on the evolution of avian sensory systems. Third, outreach seminars will be given at high schools in communities with high representation of minorities to show the similarities and differences between human and avian vision and how these affect behavior. Fourth, a webpage will be developed emphasizing the relevance of inter-disciplinary research in sensory and behavioral ecology to understand the evolution of visual systems.