Antagonistic effects of predator color morph abundance and saliency on prey anti-predator responses.

ABSTRACT: The color polymorphisms of prey species are often maintained by apostatic selection. In particular, rarer morphs are thought to be at an advantage because attentional constraints result in predators forming search images, which are based on the most abundant prey morph. Predatory species can also be polymorphic and predator morph abundance may be maintained by a similar mechanism, given prey are also likely to form search images to ensure fast and appropriate anti-predatory responses. Alternatively, given that the predator polymorphism may be driven by other ecological factors (eg niche divergence or sexual selection), prey may instead be highly sensitive to the relative visual saliency of different predatory morphs, which in turn could impact predator morph abundance. Here, by combining e

SUBMITTER: Matchette SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12202312 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature