scholarly journals On the innovation and evolution of predatory tactics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya S. Gokhale ◽  
Anne E. Wignall

AbstractPredator-prey systems are ubiquitous across ecological systems. Typical ecological models focus on the dynamics of predator-prey populations. Eco-evolutionary models integrate arms race or Red-Queen like dynamics. The roles of the predator and prey species are always assumed to be static. Nevertheless, sometimes predators can bite off more than they can chew. For example, predators that encounter multiple or dangerous prey types may need to develop new predatory tactics to capture prey. We explore the dynamics of predator-prey dynamics when the prey can injure or kill the predator. This common ecological scenario places pressure on the predator to develop novel predatory tactics to both capture prey and avoid counter-attack from prey. Taking a bottom-up approach, we develop the Holling function mechanistically and then implement it in a model of innovationselection dynamics inspired by economic theory. We show how an interdisciplinary approach can be used to explain the emergence of complex predatory behaviours. Notably, our study shows why predators may hunt dangerous prey even when safe prey are available. In a broader context, we demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach combining ecology, evolution and economics improves our understanding of a complex behavioural trait.

Author(s):  
Xavier Lambin

The dependency of mustelid demographic rates on prey abundance has the potential to cause a strong coupling between predator-prey populations. Data on mustelid dynamics show that such strong reciprocal interactions only materialise in some restricted conditions. Bite-size mustelid predators searching for scarce, depleted prey expose themselves to increased risk of predation by larger predators of small mammal that are themselves searching for similar prey species. As voles or muskrats become scarcer, weasels and mink searching for prey over larger areas become increasingly exposed to intra-guild predation, unless they operate in a habitat refuge such as the sub-nivean space. Where larger predators are sufficiently abundant or exert year-round predation pressure on small mustelids, their impact on mustelids may impose biological barrier to dispersal that are sufficient to weaken the coupling between small mustelids and their rodent prey, and thus impose a degree of top down limitation on mustelids.


1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (11) ◽  
pp. 2624-2633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter F. Major ◽  
Lawrence M. Dill ◽  
David M. Eaves

Three-dimensional interactions between grouped aerial predators (frontal discs of aircraft engines), either linearly arrayed or clustered, and flocks of small birds were studied using interactive computer simulation techniques. Each predator modelled was orders of magnitude larger than an individual prey, but the prey flock was larger than each predator. Expected numbers of individual prey captured from flocks were determined for various predator speeds and trajectories, flock–predator initial distances and angles, and flock sizes, shapes, densities, trajectories, and speeds. Generally, larger predators and clustered predators caught more prey. The simulation techniques employed in this study may also prove useful in studies of predator–prey interactions between schools or swarms of small aquatic prey species and their much larger vertebrate predators, such as mysticete cetaceans.The study also provides a method to study problems associated with turbine aircraft engine damage caused by the ingestion of small flocking birds, as well as net sampling of organisms in open aquatic environments.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xiangzeng Kong ◽  
Zhiqin Chen ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Wensheng Yang

We propose and study the permanence of the following periodic Holling III predator-prey system with stage structure for prey and both two predators which consume immature prey. Sufficient and necessary conditions which guarantee the predator and the prey species to be permanent are obtained.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Can-Yun Huang ◽  
Min Zhao ◽  
Hai-Feng Huo

A stage-structured three-species predator-prey model with Beddington-DeAngelis and Holling II functional response is introduced. Based on the comparison theorem, sufficient and necessary conditions which guarantee the predator and the prey species to be permanent are obtained. An example is also presented to illustrate our main results.


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
G. Vignoli

The word “pelvic floor dysfunction” has different meanings in different specialties, i.e. radiology, urology, gynaecology, coloproctology. Despite the fact that the concept of perineology is not exactly new, most clinicians have only slowly adapted their practice to this transversal view. The multidisciplinary approach (several specialists dealing with various pelvic floor problems) still prevails over the interdisciplinary one (one specialist explaining what is happening) with several problems in the choice of therapeutic strategies. Obviously, the interdisciplinary approach requires a wide knowledge of the principles and techniques of each specialty. This monographic issue reviews advanced diagnostic testing for female pelvic floor dysfunctions from the perspective of a single specialist, namely a urologist.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
Svetlana Yu. Anisimova ◽  
Tatyana V. Borisova

The article discusses the role of the disciplinary approach in the study of historical memory. In the modern research field, the methodological status of an interdisciplinary approach is becoming more and more popular. It is connected with the problems of the new ontology formation, where the general foundations between nature and society are investigated. Many sciences use the of interdisciplinary methodology to understand the interaction of the natural sciences and the humanities. Today, the organization of interdisciplinarity is actively criticized, which does not take into account the interconnection between natural sciences and humanities. The absence of this relationship is manifested in the problems of historical memory. Therefore, the idea is being advanced to justify the fundamental status of historical memory, it is necessary to change the organization of scientific knowledge.


Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

Predator-prey interactions form an essential part of ecological communities, determining the flow of energy from autotrophs to top predators. The rate of predation is a key regulator of that energy flow, and that rate is determined by the functional response. Functional responses themselves are emergent ecological phenomena – they reflect morphology, behavior, and physiology of both predator and prey and are both outcomes of evolution and the source of additional evolution. The functional response is thus a concept that connects many aspects of biology from behavioral ecology to eco-evolutionary dynamics to food webs, and as a result, the functional response is the key to an integrative science of predatory ecology. In this book, I provide a synthesis of research on functional responses, starting with the basics. I then break the functional response down into foraging components and connect these to the traits and behaviors that connect species in food webs. I conclude that contrary to appearances, we know very little about functional responses, and additional work is necessary for us to understand how environmental change and management will impact ecological systems


2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1928) ◽  
pp. 20200652
Author(s):  
Johannes Cairns ◽  
Felix Moerman ◽  
Emanuel A. Fronhofer ◽  
Florian Altermatt ◽  
Teppo Hiltunen

Predator–prey interactions heavily influence the dynamics of many ecosystems. An increasing body of evidence suggests that rapid evolution and coevolution can alter these interactions, with important ecological implications, by acting on traits determining fitness, including reproduction, anti-predatory defence and foraging efficiency. However, most studies to date have focused only on evolution in the prey species, and the predator traits in (co)evolving systems remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated changes in predator traits after approximately 600 generations in a predator–prey (ciliate–bacteria) evolutionary experiment. Predators independently evolved on seven different prey species, allowing generalization of the predator's evolutionary response. We used highly resolved automated image analysis to quantify changes in predator life history, morphology and behaviour. Consistent with previous studies, we found that prey evolution impaired growth of the predator, although the effect depended on the prey species. By contrast, predator evolution did not cause a clear increase in predator growth when feeding on ancestral prey. However, predator evolution affected morphology and behaviour, increasing size, speed and directionality of movement, which have all been linked to higher prey search efficiency. These results show that in (co)evolving systems, predator adaptation can occur in traits relevant to foraging efficiency without translating into an increased ability of the predator to grow on the ancestral prey type.


2014 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
S. Randolph May

Students will analyze the coevolution of the predator–prey relationships between Tyrannosaurus rex and its prey species using analyses of animal speeds from fossilized trackways, prey-animal armaments, adaptive behaviors, bite marks on prey-animal fossils, predator–prey ratios, and scavenger competition. The students will be asked to decide whether T. rex was a predator, an opportunistic scavenger, or an obligate scavenger.


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