Linked Life Data

11296867

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/11296867

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
1466
pubmed:dateCreated
2001-4-11
pubmed:abstractText
Anti-predator scans by animals occur with very irregular timing, so that the initiation of scans resembles a random, Poisson-like, process. At first sight, this seems both dangerous (predators could exploit the long intervals) and wastefull (scans after very short intervals are relatively uninformative). We explored vigilance timing using a new model that allows both predators and prey to vary their behaviour. Given predators that attack at random with respect to prey behaviour, constant inter-scan intervals minimize predation risk. However, if prey scan regularly to minimize their risk from randomly attacking predators, they become more vulnerable to predators that initiate attacks when the inter-scan intervals begin. If, in order to defeat this tactic, prey choose extremely variable inter-scan intervals, they become more vulnerable to predators who wait for long intervals before launching attacks. Only if predators can monitor the variability of inter-scan intervals and either attack immediately (if variability is too low) or wait for long intervals to attack (if variability is too high) does the empirically observed pattern of Poisson-like scanning become the optimal prey strategy.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Mar
pubmed:issn
0962-8452
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
7
pubmed:volume
268
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
541-7
pubmed:dateRevised
2010-9-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2001
pubmed:articleTitle
Prey scan at random to evade observant predators.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article