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622 results for “Prey and predator”
California's Central Valley Project Improvement Act Predation Contact Point Study - 2022: Predator-prey interactions under low artificial lighting in a laboratory setting
The highest rates of piscivorous predation in the field have been recorded during crepuscular light levels associated with sunrise and sunset or artificial lighting at night (ALAN). We conducted a laboratory study where groups of predator-naïve, hatchery-raised juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were exposed to natural-origin piscivorous largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) under three light treatments representative of brighter crepuscular periods or direct ALAN illumination (“high” treatment), dimmer crepuscular periods or sky glow from ALAN (“medium” treatment), and night or no ALAN (“low” treatment). We then statistically evaluated potential associations between light treatment, prey group cohesion, and predator activity.
Predator effects on metamorphosis: The effects of scaring versus thinning at high prey densities.
Organisms with complex life cycles face the challenge of when to switch between habitats and foraging strategies over ontogeny in ways that improve their fitness. Metamorphosis is a well-studied life history event in animals and ecologists have spent decades trying to understand how the size at and time to metamorphosis are altered by natural stressors such as competition and predation. The challenges in interpreting the effects of predators on metamorphic decisions include the need to compare predator species that pose different levels of risk, compare the roles of predators inducing fear versus thinning of the density of prey, and examine prey life history traits and behavior over ontogeny. We addressed these challenges in a mesocosm experiment in which we introduced a high initial density of hatchling Northern Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens) and exposed them to three different species of caged predators (to induce three different levels of fear), three rates of hand-thinning (to mimic the thinning effect of each predator), or three species of lethal predators (to cause induction and thinning). Under these initial high densities, we found that caged predators had no effects on tadpole activity, growth, and development. This outcome was likely due to the high density of tadpoles causing high competition, which can inhibit anti-predator responses. High rates of hand thinning caused decreased tadpole activity, greater mass, and faster development. Interestingly, lethal predators caused phenotypic changes that were largely in line with the hand thinning effects alone. These results suggest that at high initial prey densities, the thinning process of predation appears plays a much more important role in prey metamorphosis than induction from predatory chemical cues.
Dissecting the smell of fear from conspecific and heterospecific prey: Investigating the processes that induce anti-predator defenses.
Prey use chemical cues from predation events to obtain information about predation risk to alter their phenotypes. Though we know how many prey respond to predators, we still have a poor understanding of the processes and chemical cues involved during a predation event. We examined how gray treefrog tadpoles (Hyla verisciolor) altered their behavior and morphology when raised with cues from different stages of predator attack, predators fed different amounts of prey, and predators consuming different combinations of treefrog tadpoles or snails (Helisoma trivolvis). We found that starved predators and predators fed snails induced no defensive responses whereas tadpoles exposed to a predator consuming gray treefrogs induced greater hiding, lower activity, and relatively deeper tails. We also found that the tadpoles did not respond to crushed, chewed, or digested conspecifics, but they did respond to consumed (i.e. chewed + digested) conspecifics. When we increased the treefrog biomass consumed by predators, tadpoles frequently increased their defenses when only tadpoles were consumed and always increased their defenses when the total diet biomass was held constant via the inclusion of snails. When predators experienced temporal variation in diet composition, including cues from snails to cause additional digestive cues or chemical noise, there was no effect on tadpole phenotypes. Our results suggest that amphibian prey rely on cues from both chewing and digestion of conspecifics and that the presence of cues from digested heterospecifics play little or no role in adding chemical noise or increased digestive enzymes and by-products that interfere with induced defenses.
Trophic cascade driven by behavioural fine-tuning as naïve prey rapidly adjust to a novel predator
<p>The arrival of novel predators can trigger trophic cascades driven by shifts in prey numbers. Predators also elicit behavioural change in prey populations, via phenotypic plasticity and/or rapid evolution, and such changes may also contribute to trophic cascades. Here we document rapid demographic and behavioural changes in populations of a prey species (grassland melomys <em>Melomys burtoni</em>, a granivorous rodent) following the introduction of a novel marsupial predator (northern quoll <em>Dasyurus hallucatus</em>). Within months of quolls appearing, populations of melomys exhibited reduced survival and population declines relative to control populations. Quoll-invaded populations (<em>n </em>= 4) were also significantly shyer than nearby, quoll-free populations (<em>n </em>= 3) of conspecifics. This rapid but generalised response to a novel threat was replaced over the following two years with more threat-specific antipredator behaviours (i.e. predator-scent aversion). Predator-exposed populations, however, remained more neophobic than predator-free populations throughout the study. These behavioural responses manifested rapidly in changed rates of seed predation by melomys across treatments. Quoll-invaded melomys populations exhibited lower per-capita seed take rates, and rapidly developed an avoidance of seeds associated with quoll scent, with discrimination playing out over a spatial scale of tens of metres. Presumably the significant and novel predation pressure induced by quolls drove melomys populations to fine-tune behavioural responses to be more predator-specific through time. These behavioural shifts could reflect individual plasticity (phenotypic flexibility) in behaviour or may be adaptive shifts from natural selection imposed by quoll predation. Our study provides a rare insight into the rapid ecological and behavioural shifts enacted by prey to mitigate the impacts of a novel predator and shows that trophic cascades can be strongly influenced by behavioural as well as numerical responses.</p>
Ferry et al. 2024 - Prey that is attractive but not repelled by predators suggests an asymmetric investment in the encounter-avoid-escape sequence. - R Code and Datasets
<p>R code for formating data and running PAMMs for all different combinations of predator-prey.</p> <p>Data of camera trap observation.</p> <p>Data of environmental variable associated to camera trap sites.</p>
Are you scared yet? Variations to cue components elicits differential prey behavioral responses even when gape limited predators are relatively small.
Anti-predator behavior is often evoked based on measurements of risk calculated from sensory cues emanating from predators independent of physical attack. Yet, the exact sensory indices of cues used in risk assessment remain largely unknown. To examine how different predatory cue indices of information are used in risk assessment, we presented prey with various cues from sublethal gape-limited predators. Rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus (Girard, 1852)) were exposed to predatory odors from sublethal-sized largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802)) to test effects of changing predator abundance, relative size relationships, and total predator length in flow through mesocosms. Foraging, shelter use, and movement behavior were used to measure cue effects. Foraging time depended jointly upon predator abundance and total predator size (p = 0.030). Specifically, high predator abundance resulted in decreased foraging efforts as gape ratio increased. Similarly, sheltering time depended on the interaction between predator abundance and gape ratio when predator abundance was highest (p = 0.020). Crayfish significantly increased exploration time when gape ratio increased (p = 0.010). Thus, this study shows crayfish can use different indices of predatory cues, namely total predator abundance and relative size ratios, in risk assessment but do so in context-specific ways.
Sublethal effects of pesticides on predator-prey interactions in amphibians, 2008.
Increasing evidence suggests that contaminants in the environment can have important consequences on organismal interactions. While we have a good understanding of the lethal effects of contaminants on organisms, we have a weak understanding of how contaminants can affect organisms by altering the interactions that they have with other species in the community. Using tadpoles of two anuran species (Bullfrogs, Lithobates [Rana] catesbeianus; Green Frogs, L. clamitans), we investigated the effects of low nominal concentrations (1 and 10 ppb) of two pesticides (malathion and endosulfan) on tadpole activity and survival when exposed to four predator treatments (no predators; water bugs, Belostoma flumineum; newts, Notophthalmus viridescens; and dragonfly larvae, Anax junius). In both anuran species, adding predators reduced tadpole activity and survival, with increasing rates of mortality occurring with water bugs, newts, and dragonflies, respectively. Additionally, the highest concentration of endosulfan caused tadpole mortality after 48 hrs. Most significant, tadpole species also experienced interactive effects of predators and pesticides on survival after 48 hrs. In Bullfrog treatments, all predators reduced the amount of tadpole mortality when exposed to endosulfan. In Green Frogs, additive negative effects occurred, except that newts increased the tadpole mortality when exposed to endosulfan. Our findings illustrate that pesticide effects on predator–prey interactions are often complex and have the potential to alter aquatic community composition.
Bottom-up meets top-down: Leaf litter inputs influence predator-prey interactions in wetlands, 2011.
While the common conceptual role of resource subsidies is one of bottom-up nutrient and energy supply, inputs can also alter the structural complexity of environments. This can further impact resource flow by providing refuge for prey and decreasing predation rates. However, the direct influence of different organic subsidies on predator–prey dynamics is rarely examined. In forested wetlands, leaf litter inputs are a dominant energy and nutrient resource and they can also increase benthic surface cover and decrease water clarity, which may provide refugia for prey and subsequently reduce predation rates. In outdoor mesocosms, we investigated how inputs of leaf litter that alter benthic surface cover and water clarity influence the mortality and growth of gray treefrog tadpoles (Hyla versicolor) in the presence of free-swimming adult newts (Notophthalmus viridiscens), which are visual predators. To manipulate surface cover, we added either oak (Quercus spp.) or red pine (Pinus resinosa) litter and crossed these treatments with three levels of red maple (Acer rubrum) litter leachate to manipulate water clarity. In contrast to our predictions, benthic surface cover had no effect on tadpole survival while darkening the water caused lower survival. In addition, individual tadpole mass was lowest in the high maple leachate treatments, suggesting an interaction between bottom-up effects of leaf litter and topdown effects of predation risk that altered mortality and growth of tadpoles. Our results indicate that realistic changes in forest tree composition, which cause concomitant changes in litter inputs to wetlands, can substantially alter community interactions.
What doesn’t kill you makes you sluggish: How sublethal pesticides alter predator-prey interactions, 2004.
Pesticides commonly occur in ecological communities at relatively low concentrations, leading to growing interest in determining the sublethal effects of pesticides. Such effects should affect individuals and, in turn, alter interspecific interactions. We sought to determine how sublethal concentrations (0.1 and 1.0 mg/L) of two common pesticides (carbaryl and malathion) affected predator and prey behavior as well as subsequent predation rates. We conducted a series of experiments using three species of larval amphibians (Gray Treefrogs, Hyla versicolor; Green Frogs, Rana clamitans; and American Bullfrogs, R. catesbeiana) and three species of their predators (larval dragonflies, Anax junius; adult water bugs, Belostoma flumineum; and adult Red-spotted Newts, Notophthalmus viridescens). We found that the pesticides frequently reduced the activity of all three tadpole species. For the two invertebrate predators (Anax and Belostoma), the pesticides were lethal, precluding us from examining sublethal effects on predator–prey interactions. However, newt survival was high and the addition of the pesticides reduced the predation rates of newts in one of the three tadpole species. There were no effects of the pesticides on the striking frequency of the newts or on their prey capture efficiency. Thus, the mechanism underlying the pesticide-induced reduction in predation rates remains unclear. What is clear is that sublethal concentrations of pesticides have the potential to alter prey behavior and species interactions and thereby alter the composition of ecological communities.
Interpreting the smells of predation: How alarm cues and kairomones induce different prey defenses.
1. For phenotypically plastic organisms to produce phenotypes that are well matched to their environment, they must acquire information about their environment. For inducible defences, cues from damaged prey and cues from predators both have the potential to provide important information, yet we know little about the relative importance of these separate sources of information for behavioural and morphological defences. We also do not know the point during a predation event at which kairomones are produced, i.e. whether they are produced constitutively, during prey attack or during prey digestion. 2. We exposed leopard frog tadpoles (Rana pipiens) to nine predator cue treatments involving several combinations of cues from damaged conspecifics or heterospecifics, starved predators, predators only chewing prey, predators only digesting prey or predators chewing and digesting prey. 3. We quantified two behavioural defences. Tadpole hiding behaviour was induced only by cues from crushed tadpoles. Reduced tadpole activity was induced only by cues from predators digesting tadpoles or predators chewing + digesting tadpoles. 4. We also quantified tadpole mass and two size-adjusted morphological traits that are known to be phenotypically plastic. Mass was unaffected by the cue treatments. Relative body length was affected (i.e. there were differences among some treatments), but none of the treatments significantly differed from the no-predator control. Relative tail depth was affected by the treatments and deeper tails were induced only when tadpoles were exposed to cues from predators digesting tadpoles or cues from predators chewing + digesting tadpoles. 5. These results demonstrate that some prey species can discriminate among a diverse set of potential cues from heterospecific prey, conspecific prey and predators. Moreover, the results illustrate that the cues responsible for the full suite of behavioural and morphological defences are not induced by tadpole crushing nor
Habitat features and performance interact to determine the outcomes of terrestrial predator-prey pursuits
<p>1. Animals are responsive to predation risk, often seeking safer habitats at the cost of foraging rewards. Although previous research has examined how habitat features affect detection by predators, little is known about how the interaction of habitat features, sensory cues, and physical performance capabilities affect prey escape performance once detected.</p> <p>2. To investigate how specific habitat features affect predation risk, we developed an individual-based model of terrestrial predator–prey pursuits in habitats with programmable features.</p> <p>3. We ran simulations varying the relative performance capabilities of predator and prey as well as the availability and abundance of refuges and obstacles in the habitat.</p> <p>4. Prey were more likely to avoid detection in complex habitats containing a higher abundance of obstacles; however, if detected, prey escape probability was dependent on both the abundance of refuges and obstacles and the predator's relative performance capabilities. Our model accurately predicted the relative escape success for impala escaping from cheetah in open savanna versus acacia thicket habitat, though escape success was consistently underestimated.</p> <p>5. Our model provides a mechanistic explanation for the differential effects of habitat on survival for different predator–prey pairs. Its flexible nature means that our model can be refined to simulate specific systems and could have applications toward management programs for species threatened by habitat loss and predation.</p>
Beneath the Antarctic sea-ice: Fine-scale analysis of Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) behaviour and predator-prey interactions, using micro-sonar data in Terre Adélie
<p>In this study, we tried to assess:<br>i) whether and how female Weddell seals feed (frequency, depth, duration) during lactation,<br>ii) what is their utilization of a limited foraging area (benthic or pelagic dives) as they are spatially constrained by the presence of their pup, and<br>iii) how can we characterize their foraging dives and the approach/catching phases using new tools providing a more detailed description of their behaviour.<br>Sonar tags were deployed on three breeding female Weddell seals in Terre Adélie (East Antarctica) in November 2019, to study animals' movements and dives at high resolution (3D acceleration, magnetometry, time and depth and GPS location), as well as information on prey and predator-prey interactions using acoustic data.</p>
Data from: Exploring polymorphism in a palatable prey: Predation risk and frequency-dependence in relation to distinct levels of conspicuousness
<p>Camouflage and warning signals are different anti-predator strategies, which offer an excellent opportunity to study the evolutionary forces acting on prey appearance. Edible prey often escape detection via camouflage, which usually leads to apostatic selection favoring rare morphs. By contrast, defended prey often display conspicuous coloration acting as warning signals to predators, which usually leads to positive frequency-dependence and signal uniformity. However, when two morphs of the same species vary greatly in conspicuousness, the maintenance of both cryptic and conspicuous forms in profitable prey populations remains enigmatic. Using the white and melanic morphs of the invasive box tree moth (<em>Cydalima perspectalis</em>) presented at three different frequencies, we investigate a) the palatability of caterpillars and adult moths to birds, b) predation rates on the less conspicuous melanic morph, and c) the role of frequency-dependence in balancing morph frequencies. Our results show that caterpillars are distasteful for birds but not adult moths, which are fully palatable. We found that the less conspicuous, melanic morph, benefits from reduced predation due to its lower detectability. The more conspicuous, white morph, instead, is more predated and is best off when common, suggesting positive-frequency dependence. These results offer new insights into the evolution of color polymorphism and prey defenses in a polymorphic moth species. Further investigation is required to understand the role of different predation regimes on the maintenance of the polymorphism in this species, and test if additional selection pressures operate in natural populations.</p>
F I G U R E 3 A in Fish as predators and prey: DNA-based assessment of their role in food webs
F I G U R E 3 A range of factors affect the fate of food DNA in dietary samples and influence the interpretation of molecularly derived trophic data. These factors can be grouped into methodological, biological and environmental aspects
F I G U R E 2 in Fish as predators and prey: DNA-based assessment of their role in food webs
F I G U R E 2 Schematic overview of different types of primers: species-specific (red), group-specific (green), general (blue) and blocking (yellow) primers in a hypothetical food chain and corresponding DNA sequences of involved taxa. Dots in the sequence alignment denote identical bases as in the topmost sequence
F I G U R E 1 in Fish as predators and prey: DNA-based assessment of their role in food webs
F I G U R E 1 Schematic overview of the workflow when analysing dietary samples molecularly: sample collection (gut content, regurgitate, faeces), extraction of total DNA, identification of food DNA via diagnostic PCR and/or metabarcoding, respectively
Prey diversity constrains the adaptive potential of predator foraging traits
<p>Predators are generally under selective pressure to get better at foraging, leading to steeper functional responses and stronger predator-prey interactions. Yet strong interactions can de-stabilize food webs, and most interactions across ecological communities are thought to be weak. This conflict between evolutionary and community expectations for the strength of predator-prey interactions represents a fundamental gap in our understanding of how the evolution of foraging plays out in food webs. Here we help to resolve the conflict by showing analytically that the expectation for the evolution of steeper functional responses is relaxed in communities with diverse prey types. We simulate communities with varying prey richness and show that increasing prey richness can indeed constrain the adaptive potential of predator foraging traits, but that at low prey richness predators can evolve to have a stronger interaction with prey that have high net energy yields. Our results also indicate that handling time plays a role in determining whether predators may evolve to have a stronger interaction with abundant prey, suggesting that the evolution of keystone predator modules in food webs is most likely when handling times are negligible. Our results also provide a new mechanism predicting more diffuse interactions in diverse tropical communities relative to more species-poor communities at higher latitudes.</p>
Behavioral "bycatch" from camera trap surveys yields insights on prey responses to human-mediated predation risk
<p>Human disturbance directly affects animal populations but indirect effects of disturbance on species behaviors are less well understood. Camera traps provide an opportunity to investigate variation in animal behaviors across gradients of disturbance. We used camera trap data to test predictions about predator-sensitive behavior in three ungulate species (caribou Rangifer tarandus; white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus; moose, Alces alces) across two boreal forest landscapes varying in disturbance. We quantified behavior as the number of camera trap photos per detection event and tested its relationship to predation risk between a landscape with greater industrial disturbance and predator abundance (Algar) and a "control" landscape with lower human and predator activity (Richardson). We also assessed the influence of predation risk and habitat on behavior across camera sites within the disturbed Algar landscape. We predicted that animals in areas with greater predation risk (more wolf activity, less cover) would travel faster and generate fewer photos per event, while animals in areas with less predation risk would linger (rest, forage), generating more photos per event. Consistent with predictions, caribou and moose had more photos per event in the landscape where predation risk was reduced. Within the disturbed landscape, no prey species showed a significant behavioral response to wolf activity, but the number of photos per event decreased for white-tailed deer with increasing line of sight (m) along seismic lines (i.e. decreasing visual cover), consistent with a predator-sensitive response. The presence of juveniles was associated with shorter behavioral events for caribou and moose, suggesting greater predator sensitivity for females with calves. Only moose demonstrated a positive association with vegetation productivity (NDVI), suggesting that for other species influences of forage availability were generally weaker than those from predation risk. Behavioral insights can be gleaned from camera trap surveys and provide information about animal responses to predation risk and the indirect impacts of human disturbances.</p>
Trophic allometry in a predator that carries corpses of its prey
<p><span>Ant-snatching assassin bugs carry a 'backpack' of ant corpses as an antipredator strategy. From photographs, we quantified the relative size and number of ants in these backpacks. We found a trade-off between size and number of carried ants, suggesting that trophic allometry has implications beyond energy acquisition, potentially affecting camouflage.</span></p>
Figure 2 in Amphibians and reptiles as prey of Heteroctenus junceus (Scorpiones: Buthidae), with a summary of vertebrate predation by scorpions in the West Indies
Figure 2. Heteroctenus junceus, the largest species in the genus and one of the largest scorpions in the West Indies, male (2a) and female (2b).
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