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

生物从收集信息中受益，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)。在做决定之前。进化生态学的主要空白之一是理解视觉系统的配置如何影响信息收集的成本和收益。这在以视觉为导向的群居动物(如鸟类)中尤其有趣，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)，这可能会影响个人的健康(例如，捕食者检测)，并最终影响社会互动(例如，群体大小，邻居距离)。例如，动物可以通过自身的警觉行为(个人信息)或通过群居伴侣的反捕食者行为(社会信息)来发现捕食者。本项目的目标是研究两种关键视觉能力(视觉敏锐度和视野范围)在社会觅食场景中如何影响反捕食者的行为反应，以四种鸟类为模型：斑雀Carpodacus micianus、麻雀Passer home ticus、褐头牛鸟Molothus ater和欧洲八哥。一般的假设是，视觉社会信息在多大程度上被用来将捕食的脆弱性降至最低，将取决于视觉敏锐度和视野之间的权衡。两个预测将得到检验。首先，由于视觉覆盖范围较大，视力相对较宽和较不敏锐的物种将表现出不如视力相对较窄和较锐利的物种高质量(平视)扫描。其次，视觉系统相对较宽和较不敏锐的物种的捕食者检测将受到距离捕食者的距离的限制，因为它们的视觉深度较小；而在视野相对较窄和视力较敏锐的物种中，由于其视觉覆盖范围较有限，捕食者的检测将受到身体姿势和头部方向的限制。这项研究将加深我们对具有不同视觉系统的物种中参与反捕食行为的机制的理解，这可能影响了雀形目鸟类的视觉进化。将产生将感觉生物学和行为生态学结合在一起的新知识，并通过跨学科同行评议的期刊和会议向科学界传播，包括研究生和本科生作为共同作者，并通过非技术性出版物铺设受众。研究将通过不同的活动与教学相结合，总的目标是提高少数群体对进化生物学的兴趣。首先，少数民族高中、本科生和研究生将参与该项目。第二，将开发关于鸟类感觉系统进化的新课程和实验模块。第三，将在少数族裔代表性较高的社区的高中举办外联研讨会，展示人类和鸟类视觉之间的相似和不同之处，以及它们如何影响行为。第四，将开发一个网页，强调在感觉和行为生态学方面的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.