Unpredictable movement as an anti-predator strategy.

ABSTRACT: Prey animals have evolved a wide variety of behaviours to combat the threat of predation, and these have been generally well studied. However, one of the most common and taxonomically widespread antipredator behaviours of all has, remarkably, received almost no experimental attention: so-called 'protean' behaviour. This is behaviour that is sufficiently unpredictable to prevent a predator anticipating in detail the future position or actions of its prey. In this study, we used human 'predators' participating in 3D virtual reality simulations to test how protean (i.e. unpredictable) variation in prey movement affects participants' ability to visually target them as they move (a key determinant of successful predation). We found that targeting accuracy was significantly predicted by prey mov

SUBMITTER: Richardson G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125907 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature