Search patterns, resource regeneration, and ambush locations impact the competition between active and ambush predators.

Autor: Scharf I; School of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences [Ann N Y Acad Sci] 2024 Jun; Vol. 1536 (1), pp. 122-134. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 11.
DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15169
Abstrakt: Many predators ambush prey rather than pursue them or shift between foraging modes. Active predators typically encounter prey more frequently than ambush predators. I designed a simulation model to examine whether this always holds and how active and ambush predators fare in capturing mobile prey. Prey foraged for clumped resources using area-restricted search, shifting from directional movement before resource encounter to less directional movement afterward. While active predators succeeded more than ambush predators, the advantage of active predators diminished when ambush predators were positioned inside resource patches rather than outside. I investigated the impact of eight treatments and their interactions. For example, regeneration of prey resources increased the difference between ambush predators inside and outside patches, and uncertain prey capture by predators decreased this difference. Several interactions resulted in outcomes different from each factor in isolation. For instance, reducing the directionality level of active predators impacted moderately when applied alone, but when combined with resource regeneration it led to the worst success of active predators against ambush predators inside patches. Ambush predators may not always be inferior to active predators, and one should consider the key traits of the studied system to predict the relative success of these two foraging modes.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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