The challenge of detecting prey: Private and social information use in predatory bats

Page, Rachel A.; Bernal, Ximena E.

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13439

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 189 publications

(271 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The importance of combat in males and the developmental biology underlying these armaments also provide fertile grounds for research ( 101 ), as are studies examining the relationship between sexual selection and speciation ( 102 ). Finally, studies of eavesdropping on sexual signals are revealing a diverse set of counterselection forces that constrain the evolution of traits favored by sexual selection ( 103 ).…”

Section: Caveats and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Ryan

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One hundred fifty years ago Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in which he presented his theory of sexual selection with its emphasis on sexual beauty. However, it was not until 50 y ago that there was a renewed interest in Darwin’s theory in general, and specifically the potency of mate choice. Darwin suggested that in many cases female preferences for elaborately ornamented males derived from a female’s taste for the beautiful, the notion that females were attracted to sexual beauty for its own sake. Initially, female mate choice attracted the interest of behavioral ecologists focusing on the fitness advantages accrued through mate choice. Subsequent studies focused on sensory ecology and signal design, often showing how sensory end organs influenced the types of traits females found attractive. Eventually, investigations of neural circuits, neurogenetics, and neurochemistry uncovered a more complete scaffolding underlying sexual attraction. More recently, research inspired by human studies in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have provided some notion of its higher-order mechanisms. In this paper, I review progress in our understanding of Darwin’s conjecture of “a taste for the beautiful” by considering research from these diverse fields that have conspired to provide unparalleled insight into the chooser’s mate choices.

show abstract

Section: Caveats and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Ryan

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Social information is increasingly recognized as a critical component for understanding the structure of animal societies ( 23 , 24 ). Individuals can gather social information by attending to the signals and behaviors of their group members ( 1 , 25 , 26 ). If individuals can perceive something about their own rank or the ranks of others in their group, they could use that information to better maximize their potential gains from aggression and minimize potential losses or injury.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggression heuristics underlie animal dominance hierarchies and provide evidence of group-level social information

Hobson

Mønster

DeDeo

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

123

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Members of a social species need to make appropriate decisions about who, how, and when to interact with others in their group. However, it has been difficult for researchers to detect the inputs to these decisions and, in particular, how much information individuals actually have about their social context. We present a method that can serve as a social assay to quantify how patterns of aggression depend upon information about the ranks of individuals within social dominance hierarchies. Applied to existing data on aggression in 172 social groups across 85 species in 23 orders, it reveals three main patterns of rank-dependent social dominance: the downward heuristic (aggress uniformly against lower-ranked opponents), close competitors (aggress against opponents ranked slightly below self), and bullying (aggress against opponents ranked much lower than self). The majority of the groups (133 groups, 77%) follow a downward heuristic, but a significant minority (38 groups, 22%) show more complex social dominance patterns (close competitors or bullying) consistent with higher levels of social information use. These patterns are not phylogenetically constrained and different groups within the same species can use different patterns, suggesting that heuristic use may depend on context and the structuring of aggression by social information should not be considered a fixed characteristic of a species. Our approach provides opportunities to study the use of social information within and across species and the evolution of social complexity and cognition.

show abstract

“…Rachel Page and Ximena Bernal relate selection on sensory strategies to detect prey to the ecology of predator–prey dynamics, focusing on bats in a comparative framework (Page & Bernal, ). Predation is an important force selecting potential prey to be cryptic, which prompts predators to adjust their sensory strategy appropriately in order to detect prey.…”

Section: Evolutionary Ecology Of Social Decisions In the Light Of Senmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of sensory ecology and cognition in social decisions: Costs of acquiring information matter

Schneeberger

Taborsky

2020

Functional Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We generally assume that animals should maximize information acquisition about their environment to make prudent decisions. But this is a naïve assumption, as gaining information typically involves costs. This is especially so in the social context, where interests between interacting partners usually diverge. The arms race involved in mutual assessment is characterized by the attempt to obtain revealing information from a partner while providing only as much information by oneself as is conducive to one's own intentions. If obtaining information occasions costs in terms of time, energy and risk, animals should be selected to base their decisions on a cost–benefit ratio that takes account of the trade‐off between the risk of making wrong choices and the costs involved in information acquisition, processing and use. In addition, there may be physiological and/or environmental constraints limiting the ability to obtaining, processing and utilizing reliable information. Here, we discuss recent empirical evidence for the proposition that social decisions are to an important extent based on the costs that result from acquiring, processing, evaluating and storing information. Using examples from different taxa and ecological contexts, we aim at drawing attention to the often neglected costs of information recipience, with emphasis on the potential role of sensory ecology and cognition in social decisions.

show abstract

The challenge of detecting prey: Private and social information use in predatory bats

Cited by 25 publications

References 189 publications

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

Aggression heuristics underlie animal dominance hierarchies and provide evidence of group-level social information

The role of sensory ecology and cognition in social decisions: Costs of acquiring information matter

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About