Living in mixed species groups promotes predator learning in degraded habitats.

ABSTRACT: Living in mix-species aggregations provides animals with substantive anti-predator, foraging and locomotory advantages while simultaneously exposing them to costs, including increased competition and pathogen exposure. Given each species possess unique morphology, competitive ability, parasite vulnerability and predator defences, we can surmise that each species in mixed groups will experience a unique set of trade-offs. In addition to this unique balance, each species must also contend with anthropogenic changes, a relatively new, and rapidly increasing phenomenon, that adds further complexity to any system. This complex balance of biotic and abiotic factors is on full display in the exceptionally diverse, yet anthropogenically degraded, Great Barrier Reef of Australia. One such example w

SUBMITTER: Chivers DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8481234 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature