Frequency-dependent conspecific attraction to food patches

In many ecological situations, resources are difficult to find but become more apparent to nearby searchers after one of their numbers discovers and begins to exploit them. If the discoverer cannot monopolize the resources, then others may benefit from joining the discoverer and sharing their discovery. Existing theories for this type of conspecific attraction have often used very simple rules for how the decision to join a discovered resource patch should be influenced by the number of individuals already exploiting that patch. We use a mechanistic, spatially explicit model to demonstrate that individuals should not necessarily simply join patches more often as the number of individuals exploiting the patch increases, because those patches are likely to be exhausted soon or joining them will intensify future local competition. Furthermore, we show that this decision should be sensitive to the nature of the resource patches, with individuals being more responsive to discoveries in general and more tolerant of larger numbers of existing exploiters on a patch when patches are resource-rich and challenging to locate alone. As such, we argue that this greater focus on underlying joining mechanisms suggests that conspecific attraction is a more sophisticated and flexible tactic than currently appreciated.     

Non-visual crypsis: a review of the empirical evidence for camouflage to senses other than vision

I review the evidence that organisms have adaptations that confer difficulty of detection by predators and parasites that seek their targets primarily using sensory systems other than vision. In other words, I will answer the question of whether crypsis is a concept that can usefully be applied to non-visual sensory perception. Probably because vision is such an important sensory system in humans, research in this field is sparse. Thus, at present we have very few examples of chemical camouflage, and even these contain some ambiguity in deciding whether they are best seen as examples of background matching or mimicry. There are many examples of organisms that are adaptively silent at times or in locations when or where predation risk is higher or in response to detection of a predator. By contrast, evidence that the form (rather than use) of vocalizations and other sound-based signals has been influenced by issues of reducing detectability to unintended receivers is suggestive rather than conclusive. There is again suggestive but not completely conclusive evidence for crypsis against electro-sensing predators. Lastly, mechanoreception is highly understudied in this regard, but there are scattered reports that strongly suggest that some species can be thought of as being adapted to be cryptic in this modality. Hence, I conclude that crypsis is a concept that can usefully be applied to senses other than vision, and that this is a field very much worthy of more investigation.     

Secondary dispersal mechanisms of winged seeds: a review

Winged seeds, or samaras, are believed to promote the long‐distance dispersal and invasive potential of wind‐dispersed trees, but the full dispersive potential of these seeds has not been well characterised. Previous research on the ecology of winged seeds has largely focussed on the initial abscission and primary dispersal of the samara, despite it being known that the primary wind dispersal of samaras is often over short distances, with only rare escapes to longer distance dispersal. Secondary dispersal, or the movement of the seeds from the initial dispersal area to the site of germination, has been largely ignored despite offering a likely important mechanism for the dispersal of samaras to microhabitats suitable for establishment. Herein, we synthesise what is known on the predation and secondary dispersal of winged seeds by multiple dispersive vectors, highlighting gaps in knowledge and offering suggestions for future research. Both hydrochory and zoochory offer the chance for samaroid seeds to disperse over longer distances than anemochory alone, but the effects of the wing structure on these dispersal mechanisms have not been well characterised. Furthermore, although some studies have investigated secondary dispersal in samaroid species, such studies are scarce and only rarely track seeds from source to seedling. Future research must be directed to studying the secondary dispersal of samaras by various vectors, in order to elucidate fully the invasive and colonisation potential of samaroid trees.     

Context-dependent misclassification of masquerading prey

Masquerading prey resemble inedible objects such as leaves, twigs, stones and bird-droppings; and benefit because their predators misclassify them as the objects that they appear to resemble. From previous work on the importance of context cues in animal learning, we predict that predators will be less likely to misclassify masquerading prey as their models when they are found in a context in which predators have never before experienced the model. Here, we test this prediction using domestic chicks Gallus gallus domesticus as predators and twig-mimicking larvae of the Early Thorn moth Selenia dentaria as masquerading prey. We found that the benefit of masquerade was significantly larger when the twig-mimicking caterpillar was found in the context in which birds had previously experienced twigs. This suggests that masqueraders may have to pay opportunity costs associated with matching their models in position and microhabitat; and that predators’ classification decisions are complex and multi-factorial.     

The dicey dinner dilemma: Asymmetry in predator–prey risk‐taking,a broadly applicable alternative to the life‐dinner principle

Forty years ago, the ‘life‐dinner principle’ was proposed as an example of an asymmetry that may lead prey species to experience stronger selection than their predators, thus accounting for the high frequency with which prey escape alive from interaction with a predator. This principle remains an influential concept in the scientific literature, despite several works suggesting that the concept relies on many under‐appreciated assumptions and does not apply as generally as was initially proposed. Here, we present a novel model describing a very different asymmetry to that proposed in the life‐dinner principle, but one that could apply broadly. We argue that asymmetries between the relative costs and benefits to predators and prey of selecting a risky behaviour during an extended predator–prey encounter could lead to an enhanced likelihood of escape for the prey. Any resulting advantage to prey depends upon there being a behaviour or choice that introduces some inherent danger to both predator and prey if they adopt it, but which if the prey adopts the predator must match in order to have a chance of successful predation. We suggest that the circumstances indicated by our model could apply broadly across diverse taxa, including both risky spatial or behavioural choices.     

Toward an individual-level understanding of vigilance: the role of social information

A gregarious lifestyle affords the benefit of collective detectionof predators through the many-eyes effect. Studies of vigilanceare generally concerned with exploring the relationship betweenvigilance rates and group size. However, a mechanistic understandingof the rules individual animals use to achieve this group-levelbehavior is lacking. Building on a previous modeling approach,we suggest that individuals reconcile their own private informationagainst the social information they receive from their groupmates in order to decide whether to feed or be vigilant at anyone time. We present a novel modeling approach utilizing a Markovchain Monte Carlo process to describe the transition betweenvigilant and nonvigilant states. Many of our assumptions arebased qualitatively on recently published experimental observations.We vary the amount of social information and the fidelity withwhich individuals process this information and show that thishas a profound effect on the individual vigilance rate, theindividual vigilant bout length, and the proportion of vigilantindividuals at any one time. A wide range of group-level vigilancepatterns can be obtained by varying simple behavioral characteristicsof individual animals. We find that generally, increasing theamount of, and sensitivity to, social information generatesa more cooperative vigilance behavior. This model potentiallyprovides a theoretical and conceptual framework for examiningspecific real-life systems. We propose analyzing individual-baseddata from real animals by considering their group to be a connectednetwork of individuals, with information transfer between them.