Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus

Abstract

Predation has long been implicated as a major selective force in the evolution of several morphological and behavioral characteristics of animals. The importance of predation during evolutionary time is clear, but growing evidence suggests that animals also have the ability to assess and behaviorally influence their risk of being preyed upon in ecological time (i.e., during their lifetime). We develop an abstraction of the predation process in which several components of predation risk are identified. A review of the literature indicates that an animal's ability to assess and behaviorally control one or more of these components strongly influences decision making in feeding animals, as well as in animals deciding when and how to escape predators, when and how to be social, or even, for fishes, when and how to breathe air. This review also reveals that such decision making reflects apparent trade-offs between the risk of predation and the benefits to be gained from engaging in a given activity. Despite this body of evidence, several areas in the study of animal behavior have received little or no attention from a predation perspective. We identify several such areas, the most important of which is that dealing with animal reproduction. Much work also remains regarding the precise nature of the risk of predation and how it is actually perceived by animals, and the extent to which they can behaviorally control their risk of predation. Mathematical models will likely play a major role in future work, and we suggest that modelers strive to consider the potential complexity in behavioral responses to predation risk. Overall, since virtually every animal is potential prey for others, research that seriously considers the influence of predation risk will provide significant insight into the nature of animal behavior.

Not attackable or not crackable—How pre‐ and post‐attack defenses with different competition costs affect prey coexistence and population dynamics

“…Species evolved a variety of defense strategies to reduce their predation risk ranging from camouflage, apparent dead, mimicry, aposematism, warning calls, weaponry, chemical defense to escape behavior (Endler, 1991; Lima & Dill, 1990). These defense mechanisms interact in different ways with the predator.…”

Developmental plasticity in vision and behavior may help guppies overcome increased turbidity

“…Since the importance of detecting motion, especially approaching predators (Lima and Dill 1990), is paramount, and turbidity decreases the range at which visual signals can be detected, we hypothesize that guppies reared in turbid water increase the expression of long wavelength-sensitive opsins important in motion detection. Furthermore, previous studies have shown that fish placed in turbid water decrease activity (Leahy et al 2011;Borner et al 2015); thus, we predict that guppies reared in clear water and placed in turbid water will show decreases in activity, while fish reared in turbid water may be acclimated to turbid conditions (in part via transcriptional changes in their visual system) such that activity decrease in turbid water will not be observed.…”

Protean behavior under barn-owl attack: voles alternate between freezing and fleeing and spiny mice flee in alternating patterns

“…A transition from freeze to flee was not described as spontaneous, but dependent on other factors such as approach of the predator. Certainly, it is impossible to freeze and flee simultaneously, and at any given moment a prey can execute only one of these defenses [29]. However, here we assumed that only freezing or only fleeing would make the prey predictable and vulnerable.…”