EVOLUTIONARILY STABLE ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR AMONG ISOLATED FORAGERS - ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE

Animals invest in antipredator behavior to escape from (or avoid) predators. An animal that successfully evades a predator puts others at risk by passing the predator along to them. A simple model shows how this predator "pass-along" effect acts to link the antipredator behavior of apparently isolated, non-interacting foragers both within populations and between trophic levels. Essentially, successful escape magnifies antipredator behavior beyond that expected when predation risk is equated with predator-induced mortality (μ). While μ may represent the probability of being killed by predators, the risk of being attacked is more important in determining antipredator behavior, and successful escape means that many more animals will be attacked than are actually killed. © 1990 Academic Press Limited All rights reserved.