Evolution of anti-predator traits in response to a flexible targeting strategy by predators.

ABSTRACT: Anti-predator benefits increase with vigilance rate and group size in many species of animal, while simultaneously resource intake rates usually decrease. This implies that there is an optimal group size and vigilance rate that will maximize individual fitness. While this basic theory of vigilance has been modelled and tested extensively, it has often been assumed that the predator represents a 'fixed-risk' such that groups of prey are essentially independent entities that exert little or no effect on one another either directly or indirectly. We argue that this is an over-simplification, and propose that the behaviour of one group of prey will likely affect the fitness of another local group of prey if the predator preferentially attacks the most vulnerable group-rather than attack both w

SUBMITTER: Jackson AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560262 | biostudies-literature | 2006 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature