BIO 3240: Avoiding Predators - Behavioral Ecology Unit

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering antipredator behavior, lethal versus non-lethal predator effects, flight decisions, group vigilance, the landscape of fear, and predator hunting tactics.

Lethal effects

Direct predator impacts where predators kill their prey, resulting in a reduction in the number of individuals.

Non-lethal effects

Behavior-driven consequences of predator presence—such as increased vigilance, reduced feeding, retreat to safer habitats, or altered group sizes—shown by a meta-analysis of $166$ studies to be generally stronger than direct killing.

Snowshoe hare cycle

A boom-and-crash population cycle occurring approximately every $10$ years that is primarily driven by predation (accounting for $95\%$ of collared hare deaths) rather than starvation (accounting for only about $3\%$ of deaths).

Camouflage

A pre-detection antipredator defense that makes an animal hard to see, thereby making it safer for the prey to remain in place.

Armor

A pre-detection structural defense that makes an animal difficult to consume, allowing well-defended prey to wait longer before choosing to flee.

Decision rule for fleeing

The behavioral ecology principle stating that an animal flees when the cost of staying put exceeds the cost of escaping.

Risk of capture

A flight-decision factor that, when elevated, causes prey to flee sooner and from a greater distance (e.g., cooler, slower anoles).

Cost of fleeing

A flight-decision factor that, when increased, causes prey to delay fleeing (e.g., waterstriders carrying large prey flies fleeing less readily).

Shared detection and dilution hypothesis

The textbook idea that larger group sizes reduce individual vigilance demands, which is challenged by field studies on elk, bison, and prairie dogs ($14$ groups across $396$ hours showing no correlation between vigilance and group size).

Landscape of fear

A conceptual model representing the spatial variation in predation risk perceived by prey, where high-risk areas are conceptualized as 'hills' and safe areas as 'valleys' where prey concentrate their time.

Maternal elk vigilance in Yellowstone

A non-lethal response documented by Laundré et al. (2001) after wolves returned in 1994–95, in which female elk with calves increased time spent vigilant from $26\%$ to $48\%$ (sacrificing feeding time), while bulls remained at about $13\%$ vigilance.

Gallatin elk habitat shift

A spatial response documented by Creel et al. (2005) in which $14$ GPS-collared elk shifted from open, high-risk native grass to conifer cover within hours of wolf arrival despite having to sacrifice higher-quality food.

Predator hunting tactics

Distinct hunting strategies (such as coursing, stalking, or ambush) that determine where prey are vulnerable; for example, wolves kill elk in open grass, whereas wild dogs kill in thick cover.