The wilderness is a strange place. On the one hand, there are predators who brutally rip their prey for meat, and on the other hand, sometimes animals intervene to save other animals. While mothers saving their babies is common, 12 Horrifying Times When Animals Came Between Predator and Prey.
How foragers balance risks during foraging is a central focus of optimal foraging studies.?
While diverse theoretical and empirical work has revealed how foragers should and do manage food and safety from predators, little attention has been given to the risks posed by dangerous prey. This is a potentially important oversight because the risk of injury can give rise to foraging costs similar to those arising from the risk of predation, and with similar consequences. Here, we synthesize the literature on how foragers manage risks associated with dangerous prey and adapt previous theories to make the first steps toward a framework for future studies. Though rarely documented, it appears that in some systems predators are frequently injured while hunting and the risk of injury can be an important foraging cost. Fitness costs of foraging injuries, which can be fatal, likely vary widely but have rarely been studied and should be the subject of future research. Like other types of risk-taking behavior, it appears that there is individual variation in the willingness to take risks, which can be driven by social factors, experience and foraging abilities, or differences in body condition. Because of ongoing modifications to natural communities, including changes in prey availability and relative abundance and the introduction of potentially dangerous prey to numerous ecosystems, understanding the prevalence and consequences of hunting dangerous prey should be a priority for behavioral ecologists.
How Animals Avoid Becoming Dinner?
Most animals face the risk of being eaten. It’s hard to pass on your genes when you’re dead; therefore, the threat of predation imposes strong selective pressure on organisms, resulting in a myriad of behavioral strategies that allow them to survive. To avoid becoming someone’s dinner, an organism must be able to identify predatory threats and employ effective strategies to avoid detection by predators. In the event that avoidance fails, animals can use behaviors designed to prevent predators from attacking and have tactics that will increase their chances of surviving attack if it does occur.
Avoiding Predators
After an animal has determined that a predator is nearby, it must then take action to avoid encountering this threat. Encounters are most easily avoided by preventing predators from detecting prey in the first instance. One effective strategy by which animals can accomplish this is by spatially or temporally avoiding predators. This can be achieved by avoiding habitat occupied by predators, being active at different times of the day to a predator, or altering activity in response to changes in risk. Anolis lizards (Anolis sagrei) become more arboreal following the introduction of a ground-dwelling predator, and Merriam’s kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) shift from nocturnal to crepuscular foraging during full moon when they are more vulnerable to predation. Just as prey use cues to detect the presence of predators, predators use cues to detect prey. Animals can therefore avoid attracting a predator’s attention by minimizing cues of their presence, such as by remaining silent, seeking refuge, and reducing overall activity levels when risk of predation is high.
The term camouflage usually conjures up images of physical characteristics such as coloration; however, animals can also use behavior to disguise themselves and avoid detection by predators. Cephalopods and some reptiles can change color hue and pattern of their skin, and even its texture, to blend into their background Alternatively, some animals, such as decorator crabs, can attach external objects including plant matter or stones, to their bodies to allow them to better match their background. Behavioral postures and movement can also allow animals to disguise themselves; chameleons and walking stick insects mimic the motion of plants in the wind to avoid detection, and the mimic octopus takes on the shape of dangerous or unpalatable animals to deter predators. Animals can also camouflage their scent cues. Squirrels do this by chewing up shed rattlesnake skin and spreading it on their fur, thereby masking their scent and identity as potential prey.
