Factors influencing the hunting success of the predator: A model with sighthounds

Abstract

Using microbiological criteria (the number of CFU in nose prints on agar medium), it has been shown that the proportion of individuals with a high CFU count is significantly higher among brown hares caught by sighthounds or exposed to immobilization stress than among shot hares. A hypothesis is proposed that metabolites of the body surface microflora in animals exposed to long term stress account for their spe cific stress odor. Observations on wild hare coursing with the use of GPS tracking (1 s update rate) provide evidence that hunting success is not directly dependent on the absolute and relative coursing speeds, the num ber of sighthounds, and the distance, duration, and number of coursing episodes. An analysis has been per formed of stress odor as a universal criterion allowing the predator to estimate the vulnerability of potential prey. Selective elimination of unhealthy (stressed) individuals by predators is a mechanism of natural selec tion for increased adaptation of populations and species to the effects of a broad spectrum of environmental factors.

Mass enhances speed but diminishes turn capacity in terrestrial pursuit predators

“…This manoeuvre puts the pursuer directly behind the prey. During the ensuing pursuit phase, straight line pursuit by the predator towards the prey is the only viable predator option when the prey travels in a straight line (ignoring topographic complexity —see ‘Discussion’), which is also what has been observed ( Shubkina et al, 2012 and refs therein). As the predator-prey distance tends towards zero, the prey must turn to avoid capture, and may even have particular strategies such as stotting to enhance this ( Stankowich and Coss, 2007 ).…”

“…Conversely, as speed decreases, the difference in distance covered during any turn between predator and prey decreases ( Figures 1–3 ), fulfilling the fundamental game rule for the predator. The optimum strategy for a pursuit predator should, therefore, be to attempt to elicit turns by the prey which, if the prey are working close to maximum power, will result in a reduction in their speed ( Shubkina et al, 2012 ), because energy is needed for the turn ( Wilson et al, 2013c ). Invoking multiple rapid turns might therefore be a strategy that predators seek to promote.…”

“…Certainly, workers have suggested ( Wilson et al, 2013a ), and found ( Wilson et al, 2013b ), that cheetahs tend to reduce speed in the final stages of their chases (cf. Shubkina et al, 2012 ).…”

Decision letter: Mass enhances speed but diminishes turn capacity in terrestrial pursuit predators

“…Indeed, escape trajectories may be modulated to keep predators within the prey's visual (or other sensory) fields (Domenici et al, 2011). In any event, the substantive differences between terrestrial and fluid media interactions may partly account for the reason that Shneydor (1998) considers that many terrestrial cursorial predators adopt pure pursuit (hence the name 'hound-hare pursuit'), something that is backed up by observation (Schaller, 2009;Shubkina et al, 2010Shubkina et al, , 2012. Importantly though, quantitative differences in trajectories and pursuit times between pure-and predictive pursuit strategies do not change qualitative patterns.…”

Succession of hide–seek and pursuit–evasion at heterogeneous locations

“…It has been applied more to defence by prey than to attacks by predators [24,25]. The vast majority of studies in this area deal with pursuit-evasion games in a featureless environment, from hunting dragonflies and bats in the air [26,27] to sighthound dogs on land [28], and fish and copepods in water [29]. Pursuit-evasion games, in their pure form, assume that complete information is available to both antagonists; both have full visibility, for example.…”