Article
Biology
Louise C. Allen, Nickolay Hristov, Juliette J. Rubin, Joseph T. Lightsey, Jesse R. Barber
Summary: Environmental noise disrupts hunting behavior by distracting animals' attention or overlapping the frequency of prey cues. Experimental results show that exposure to noise leads to a 50% decrease in successful prey localization, a nearly tripled search time, and a 25% increase in sonar pulses used by bats.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ildiko Benedek, Tamas Molnar
Summary: The study investigates the prey size preference of wild pikeperch and suggests using a predator-prey length ratio (PPR) of 0.11-0.22 in foraging training, which is smaller than the optimal PPR for wild individuals.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Biology
Barbara Class, Giulia Masoero, Julien Terraube, Erkki Korpimaeki
Summary: Food-hoarding behavior is common in the animal kingdom, with individual variation possibly representing different strategies to cope with risks. In Eurasian pygmy owls, two sets of food-hoarding behaviors were found to be closely correlated among individuals, suggesting distinct individual strategies to mitigate against starvation risks.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Johannes Nauta, Pieter Simoens, Yara Khaluf, Ricardo Martinez-Garcia
Summary: Increased fragmentation caused by habitat loss poses a major threat to animal populations, and the impact depends on the movement rate between spatially separated patches. This study uses a spatially explicit predator-prey model to investigate how fragmentation and optimal foraging behavior interact to affect predator-prey interactions and ecosystem stability. The results show that the Levy exponent and degree of fragmentation jointly determine coexistence probabilities, and in highly fragmented landscapes, only scale-free predators can coexist with prey.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
G. J. Sutton, J. P. Y. Arnould
Summary: Quantifying prey characteristics is important for understanding predator foraging behavior. In this study, animal-borne video data loggers were used to investigate the foraging behavior of little penguins in southeastern Australia. The results suggest that prey type and patch density influence foraging behavior, while breeding season constraints impact foraging trip distance and duration.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Jeremy A. Goldbogen, Nicholas D. Pyenson, Peter T. Madsen
Summary: Whales are an exceptional subject for studying ecology and evolution due to their extraordinary body sizes and unique foraging strategies, which are unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Toothed whales have developed echolocation to hunt deep-sea fish and cephalopods, while baleen whales rely on bulk filter feeding to exploit abundant but ephemeral prey like krill or fish.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lachlan R. Phillips, Gemma Carroll, Ian Jonsen, Robert Harcourt, Andrew S. Brierley, Adam Wilkins, Martin Cox
Summary: Understanding how marine predators encounter prey across patchy landscapes remains challenging. This study used GPS and dive loggers to measure the at-sea behavior of little penguins and assessed the prey field through boat-based acoustic surveys. The results showed that penguin tracks had higher prey encounter rates compared to random movements, but reductions in prey encounters and abnormal body mass were observed when prey was sparse or deep.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
E. K. Studd, M. J. L. Peers, A. K. Menzies, R. Derbyshire, Y. N. Majchrzak, J. L. Seguin, D. L. Murray, B. Dantzer, J. E. Lane, A. G. McAdam, M. M. Humphries, S. Boutin
Summary: This study investigates the effects of wind speed on the behavior of three boreal forest mammals, including a predator and two prey. The researchers found that all three species altered their activity patterns in response to increasing wind speeds, with snowshoe hares reducing daily activity and Canada lynx increasing daily activity and feeding events. These results highlight the importance of wind speed as an abiotic variable that can affect behavior, even in forested environments.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Jesse Balaban-Feld, Sundararaj Vijayan, William A. Mitchell, Burt P. Kotler, Shamir Badichi, Zvika Abramsky
Summary: This study found that the behavioral differences between bold and shy individuals in social groups can diminish under elevated levels of predation risk. Bold individuals are more willing to take risks in order to achieve greater foraging success, while shy individuals tend to avoid risks.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gergely Horvath, Laszlo Zsolt Garamszegi, Gabor Herczeg
Summary: The predictability of behavior is an important component of an individual's behavioral strategy, and it is correlated with behavioral type, but the direction of the correlation can vary.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sam B. Weber, Andrew J. Richardson, Judith Brown, Mark Bolton, Bethany L. Clark, Brendan J. Godley, Eliza Leat, Steffen Oppel, Laura Shearer, Karline E. R. Soetaert, Nicola Weber, Annette C. Broderick
Summary: Research shows that pelagic seabirds breeding on tropical islands can deplete their primary prey species over a considerable area, a phenomenon known as "Ashmole's halo". The study results suggest that the gradient of prey depletion by seabirds is mirrored by an opposing trend in their foraging effort, which is not influenced by environmental factors and can be approximated by a model.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Wonbin Lim, Changku Kang
Summary: This study examines the function and adaptive significance of jerking behavior in Cyclosa argenteoalba orb-weaving spiders. The results show that spiders jerk more as prey size increases and spider size decreases. Jerks reduce the likelihood of prey escaping and increase the number of spiral threads contacting the prey. The efficiency of jerks is lower in larger prey, potentially due to spiders' cautiousness and reduced jerk efficiency towards larger prey. These findings highlight the importance of jerking behavior in prey capture for orb-weaving spiders.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Michael Bar-Ziv, Aran Sofer, Adel Gorovoy, Orr Spiegel
Summary: Habitat development can alter wildlife behavior, leading to preferences for individuals or behaviors that cope better with perceived threats. Bolder behaviors in human-dominated habitats may represent habituation specifically to humans or a general reduction in predator-avoidance response. However, the carry-over effects across different types of threats and phases of the escape sequence have not been well studied.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Ellen M. Chenoweth, Kevin M. Boswell, Ari S. Friedlaender, Megan McPhee, Julia A. Burrows, Ron A. Heintz, Jan M. Straley
Summary: The study developed a process-based model to investigate the potential energetic benefits of in situ foraging opportunities in rorqual whales. Results showed that humpback whales feeding on hatchery-released juvenile salmon fell within the range of the potential energetic benefits for krill and herring, with species variation. The model also suggested that shallow feeding may play a more important role in reducing energy expenditure through slower lunge speeds.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Javed Riaz, Sophie Bestley, Simon Wotherspoon, Martin J. Cox, Louise Emmerson
Summary: This study assesses the relationship between Adelie penguin foraging effort and the abundance and distribution of Antarctic krill. The findings suggest that penguins focus their diving effort in areas with a high number of krill swarms, rather than areas with high krill biomass. The study highlights the importance of understanding predator-prey dynamics for managing krill fisheries and future climate change scenarios.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Chia-chen Chang, Thi Phuong Le Nghiem, Qiao Fan, Claudia L. Y. Tan, Rachel Rui Ying Oh, Brenda B. Lin, Danielle F. Shanahan, Richard A. Fuller, Kevin J. Gaston, L. Roman Carrasco
Summary: Human impacts on nature have caused an extinction crisis, but only a fraction of society is concerned and taking action. This study reveals that concern for nature, environmental movement activism, and personal conservation behavior have moderate heritability and high genetic correlations.
Article
Ecology
Long Yu, Xin Xu, Fan Li, Wei Zhou, Hua Zeng, Eunice J. Tan, Shichang Zhang, Daiqin Li
Summary: Animals use various color-based defense strategies against visually hunting predators, but it remains unclear why individuals switch defense strategies during ontogeny.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Bingjun Wang, Long Yu, Nina Ma, Zengtao Zhang, Deyong Gong, Rui Liu, Daiqin Li, Shichang Zhang
Summary: Many orb-web spiders use conspicuous decorations on their webs to deter predators. This study found that the presence of bright white silk decorations reduced predation risk on spiders by diverting attacks towards the decorations or legs. This supports the idea that these decorations serve as a deflection strategy rather than camouflage or intimidation.
INTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Dengqing Li, Zhaoyang Chen, Fengxiang Liu, Daiqin Li, Xin Xu
Summary: Accurate species delimitation is crucial for understanding evolution, biodiversity, and conservation. Traditional morphology-based methods may not be accurate and effective for certain taxa. In this study, a combined molecular and morphological approach was used to delimit species in the spider genus Songthela, revealing high species diversity and different species groups.
INVERTEBRATE SYSTEMATICS
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Fan Li, Xin Xu, Zengtao Zhang, Fengxiang Liu, Zizhong Yang, Daiqin Li
Summary: Species delimitation is critical for understanding evolution, biodiversity, and conservation. This study used an integrative approach to delimit four Calommata spider species from southern China, providing a framework for further study of systematics and evolutionary relationships within this group.
Article
Zoology
Zhaoyang Chen, Fengxiang Liu, Daiqin Li, Xin Xu
Summary: This paper reports four new species of the primitively segmented spider genus Songthela from Chongqing Municipality, China, based on morphological characters of both males and females. The GenBank accession codes of mitochondrial DNA barcode gene are also provided for future identification of these new species.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Chia-Chen Chang, Daniel T. C. Cox, Qiao Fan, Thi Phuong Le Nghiem, Claudia L. Y. Tan, Rachel Rui Ying Oh, Brenda B. Lin, Danielle F. Shanahan, Richard A. Fuller, Kevin J. Gaston, L. Roman Carrasco
Summary: This study, using a twin design, reveals the moderate heritability of nature orientation and experiences, indicating the genetic contributions to individual's nature experiences. The study also shows that the environmental influences on nature experiences are moderated by the level of urbanization of the home district.
Letter
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Shichang Zhang, Yangjie Liu, Yubing Ma, Hao Wang, Yao Zhao, Matjaz Kuntner, Daiqin Li
Article
Biology
Shichang Zhang, Long Yu, Min Tan, Noeleen Y. L. Tan, Xaven X. B. Wong, Matjaz Kuntner, Daiqin Li
Summary: Male spiders choose mating strategies to increase their mating success when faced with the risk of being cannibalized by females. The study finds that males select the sexual organ with more sperm for the first copulation with cannibalistic females and transfer more sperm when females have cannibalistic behavior or when there is a bias in sexual size dimorphism. These results provide credibility for the male mating syndrome.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Xin Xu, Long Yu, Fan Li, Bingjun Wang, Fengxiang Liu, Daiqin Li
Summary: This study explores the species boundaries and phylogeny of Phrynarachne spiders in China, identifying six species and providing insights into their evolution and divergence times. The results show that Phrynarachne spiders in China have a monophyletic relationship and belong to the higher 'Thomisus group'. The estimated crown age of this genus in China is in the middle Miocene.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Yi Zhan, Varat Sivayyapram, Fengxiang Liu, Daiqin Li, Xin Xu
Summary: In this study, three new species of the primitively segmented spider genus Liphistius are described. They are classified based on male palp and female genital morphology, and the classification of the three species is discussed.
Article
Zoology
Guocheng Yu, Boon Hui Wong, Christina J. Painting, Hongze Li, Long Yu, Zengtao Zhang, Shichang Zhang, Daiqin Li
Summary: This study shows that male jumping spiders with exaggerated chelicerae win more contests without compromising their prey-capture efficiency. Additionally, the size of chelicerae is positively correlated with the size of neighboring traits, suggesting correlational selection.
Article
Ecology
Bernetta Z. W. Kwek, Wei Zhou, Long Yu, Guohua Ding, Daiqin Li
Summary: Through studying the jade jumping spider, it was found that females have a preference for males with lower abdomen pattern contrast and can discriminate between males based on both absolute and proportional differences in pattern contrast. The study results suggest that female preference for males with lower pattern contrast follows Weber's law and that female discrimination has the potential to limit the exaggeration of sexually selected color patterns.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Matjaz Kuntner, Eva Kuntner, Maj Kuntner, Irena Kuntner, Daiqin Li
Summary: While studying the sex ratios of Nephila pilipes in Singapore, researchers observed a fascinating case of predatory behavior by Viciria pavesii, a jumping spider. The V. pavesii female invaded a N. pilipes orb web occupied by a female and four males, successfully capturing and killing one of the Nephila males. The aggressive response of the N. pilipes alpha male suggests that V. pavesii may engage in aggressive mimicry.
Article
Zoology
Yubing Ma, Zeyuan Hua, Aijia Mao, Daiqin Li, Shichang Zhang
Summary: The occurrence of male opportunistic mating was found to be positively correlated with the intensity of female sexual cannibalism, providing evidence that this mating strategy may have evolved in response to the selection pressure posed by female sexual cannibalism.