Colour Polymorphism Protects Prey Individuals and Populations Against Predation.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Karpestam E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4763262 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Colour Polymorphism Protects Prey Individuals and Populations Against Predation.
Karpestam Einat E Merilaita Sami S Forsman Anders A
Scientific reports 20160223
Colour pattern polymorphism in animals can influence and be influenced by interactions between predators and prey. However, few studies have examined whether polymorphism is adaptive, and there is no evidence that the co-occurrence of two or more natural prey colour variants can increase survival of populations. Here we show that visual predators that exploit polymorphic prey suffer from reduced performance, and further provide rare evidence in support of the hypothesis that prey colour polymorp ...[more]
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