Inferring predator behavior from attack rates on prey-replicas that differ in conspicuousness.

ABSTRACT: Behavioral ecologists and evolutionary biologists have long studied how predators respond to prey items novel in color and pattern. Because a predatory response is influenced by both the predator's ability to detect the prey and a post-detection behavioral response, variation among prey types in conspicuousness may confound inference about post-prey-detection predator behavior. That is, a relatively high attack rate on a given prey type may result primarily from enhanced conspicuousness and not predators' direct preference for that prey. Few studies, however, account for such variation in conspicuousness. In a field experiment, we measured predation rates on clay replicas of two aposematic forms of the poison dart frog Dendrobates pumilio, one novel and one familiar, and two cryptic contro

SUBMITTER: Stuart YE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3485355 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature