Pierre-Marc Brousseau, Dominique Gravel and I. Tanya Handa Ground beetles are remarkable hunters with the capacity to kill and consume a huge diversity of potential prey ranging from snails and poison-secreting millipedes to fast jumping springtails. However, in natural ecosystems, predators will not eat all prey they encounter. Predators are selective, in part based on…
Category: behavioural ecology
Can migratory birds advance timing in offspring to track climate change by an earlier hatch date?
Janne Ouwehand, Claudia Burger and Christiaan Both Migratory birds have evolved life cycles that let them exploit food peaks at their breeding sites and then avoid harsh winter conditions by migrating to more hospitable environments. They face advances in the phenology of their habitats caused by climate warming, meaning that the timing of the appearance…
Nursing behaviour of neonate humpback whales
Simone K. A. Videsen, Lars Bejder, Mark Johnson and Peter T. Madsen Humpback whales belong to the group of large baleen whales that embark on long distance migrations each year between foraging and breeding grounds. These long migrations result in a short time window on breeding grounds, where pregnant females must give birth and nurse…
Predator foraging response to a resurgent dangerous prey
Aimee Tallian, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Matthew C. Metz , Rick L. Wallen, Chris Geremia, Joel Ruprecht, C. Travis Wyman, Daniel R. MacNulty ‘Prey switching’ refers to a change in the diet of a predator as the abundance of two prey species changes. Prey switching is ecologically important because it can stabilize prey…
Begging blue tit nestlings discriminate between the odour of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics
Marta Rossi, Reinaldo Marfull, Sarah Golüke, Jan Komdeur, Peter Korsten and Barbara A. Caspers Odours play an important role in the life of many animals, including mammals (also humans), reptiles, amphibians and fish. They use their sense of smell when searching for food, communicating with other individuals, and recognising group or family members. Birds have…
Patterns of prey capture by penguins are influenced by the patchiness of their prey
Gemma Carroll, Martin Cox, Robert Harcourt, Benjamin J. Pitcher, David Slip and Ian Jonsen In many natural systems, prey is distributed patchily across the landscape. Dense groups of individual prey items are clustered within patches of lower prey density, that are in turn separated by areas where prey is scarce. This is the case in…
Plant defense negates pathogen manipulation of vector behavior
Baiming Liu, Evan L. Preisser, Xiaobin Shi, Huaitong Wu, Chuanyou Li, Wen Xie, Shaoli Wang, Qingjun Wu, Youjun Zhang Many important and economically-damaging plant pathogens are transmitted by insect vectors, and pathogens have been shown to alter vector behavior in ways that promote both their uptake and transmission. In the Tomato yellow leaf curl virus…
Fear makes you fat, but not too fat to fly
Benjamin T. Walters, Tin Nok Natalie Cheng, Justin Doyle, Chistopher G. Guglielmo, Michael Clinchy and Liana Y. Zanette Escaping from a predator is a matter of ongoing life or immediate death. While escape ability is clearly imperative for survival, the variables that impair or improve it are not well understood. Escape ability is frequently assumed…
