Abstract
Of widespread interest in animal behavior and ecology is how animals search their environment for resources, and whether these search strategies are optimal. However, movement also affects predation risk through effects on encounter rates, the conspicuousness of prey, and the success of attacks. Here, we use predatory fish attacking a simulation of virtual prey to test whether predation risk is associated with movement behavior. Despite often being demonstrated to be a more efficient strategy for finding resources such as food, we find that prey displaying Lévy motion are twice as likely to be targeted by predators than prey utilizing Brownian motion. This can be explained by the predators, at the moment of the attack, preferentially targeting prey that were moving with straighter trajectories rather than prey that were turning more. Our results emphasize that costs of predation risk need to be considered alongside the foraging benefits when comparing different movement strategies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | arad039 |
Pages (from-to) | 695-699 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Behavioral Ecology |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 18 May 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2023 |
Keywords
- Brownian motion
- Lévy flight
- Lévy walk
- Gasterosteus aculeatus
- Search behaviour
- Three-spined sticklebacks
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Dive into the research topics of 'Virtual prey with Lévy motion are preferentially attacked by predatory fish'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Datasets
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Virtual prey with Lévy motion are preferentially attacked by predatory fish
Ioannou, C. (Creator), Carvalho, L. A. B. (Creator), Budleigh, C. (Creator) & Ruxton, G. (Creator), Dryad, 2023
Dataset
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Virtual prey with Lévy motion are preferentially attacked by predatory fish (code)
Ioannou, C. (Creator), Carvalho, L. A. B. (Creator), Budleigh, C. (Creator) & Ruxton, G. (Creator), Zenodo, 2023
Dataset: Software