Dataset Information

Going with the flow: hydrodynamic cues trigger directed escapes from a stalking predator.

ABSTRACT: In the coevolution of predator and prey, different and less well-understood rules for threat assessment apply to freely suspended organisms than to substrate-dwelling ones. Particularly vulnerable are small prey carried with the bulk movement of a surrounding fluid and thus deprived of sensory information within the bow waves of approaching predators. Some planktonic prey have solved this apparent problem, however. We quantified cues generated by the slow approach of larval clownfish ( Amphiprion ocellaris) that triggered a calanoid copepod ( Bestiolina similis) to escape before the fish could strike. To estimate water deformation around the copepod immediately preceding its jump, we represented the body of the fish as a rigid sphere in a hydrodynamic model that we parametrized with measurements of fish size, approach speed and distance to the copepod. Copepods of various developmental stages (CII-CVI) were sensitive to the water flow caused by the live predator, at deformation rates as low as 0.04 s-1. This rate is far lower than that predicted from experiments that used artificial predator-mimics. Additionally, copepods localized the source, with 87% of escapes directed away (greater than or equal to 90°) from the predator. Thus, copepods' survival in life-threatening situations relied on their detection of small nonlinear signals within an environment of locally linear deformation.

SUBMITTER: Tuttle LJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6408353 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Going with the flow: hydrodynamic cues trigger directed escapes from a stalking predator.

Tuttle Lillian J LJ Robinson H Eve HE Takagi Daisuke D Strickler J Rudi JR Lenz Petra H PH Hartline Daniel K DK

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20190201 151

In the coevolution of predator and prey, different and less well-understood rules for threat assessment apply to freely suspended organisms than to substrate-dwelling ones. Particularly vulnerable are small prey carried with the bulk movement of a surrounding fluid and thus deprived of sensory information within the bow waves of approaching predators. Some planktonic prey have solved this apparent problem, however. We quantified cues generated by the slow approach of larval clownfish ( Amphiprio ...[more]

PMID: 30958200

Similar Datasets

Project description:AbstractPrey strategically respond to the risk of predation by varying their behavior while balancing the tradeoffs of food and safety. We present here an experiment that tests the way the same indirect cues of predation risk are interpreted by bank voles, Myodes glareolus, as the game changes through exposure to a caged weasel. Using optimal patch use, we asked wild-caught voles to rank the risk they perceived. We measured their response to olfactory cues in the form of weasel bedding, a sham control in the form of rabbit bedding, and an odor-free control. We repeated the interviews in a chronological order to test the change in response, i.e., the changes in the value of the information. We found that the voles did not differentiate strongly between treatments pre-exposure to the weasel. During the exposure, vole foraging activity was reduced in all treatments, but proportionally increased in the vicinity to the rabbit odor. Post-exposure, the voles focused their foraging in the control, while the value of exposure to the predator explained the majority of variation in response. Our data also suggested a sex bias in interpretation of the cues. Given how the foragers changed their interpretation of the same cues based on external information, we suggest that applying predator olfactory cues as a simulation of predation risk needs further testing. For instance, what are the possible effective compounds and how they change "fear" response over time. The major conclusion is that however effective olfactory cues may be, the presence of live predators overwhelmingly affects the information voles gained from these cues.Significance statementIn ecology, "fear" is the strategic response to cues of risk an animal senses in its environment. The cues suggesting the existence of a predator in the vicinity are weighed by an individual against the probability of encounter with the predator and the perceived lethality of an encounter with the predator. The best documented such response is variation in foraging tenacity as measured by a giving-up density. In this paper, we show that an olfactory predator cue and the smell of an interspecific competitor result in different responses based on experience with a live-caged predator. This work provides a cautionary example of the risk in making assumptions regarding olfactory cues devoid of environmental context.

Dataset Information

Going with the flow: hydrodynamic cues trigger directed escapes from a stalking predator.

Publications

Going with the flow: hydrodynamic cues trigger directed escapes from a stalking predator.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets