Department of Zoology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078, USA.
Am Nat. 2013 Feb;181(2):182-94. doi: 10.1086/668823. Epub 2013 Jan 10.
Prey often behaviorally respond to changes in the intensity of predation risk, and these responses can often significantly shape community dynamics, but flexible responses to changes in predation risk require that prey have accurate and timely estimates of predation risk. We present a model of how a prey's environment should shape the cognitive rules they use to assess predation risk and present how these rules shape the effects predators have on prey and the prey's resources. In the model, prey can rely on a combination of a fixed estimate of predation risk and a flexible estimate of predation risk shaped by their recent experience. Prey relied more on their experience to estimate predation risk when predator cues were more reliable and when predator densities were lower. In addition, when the prey cognitive rules favored a greater use of their experience to estimate predation risk, the presence of predators caused larger nonconsumptive effects and generally smaller consumptive effects on prey and the prey's resources. These differences in prey cognition also altered the effects that alterations of cue reliability and predator densities had on prey and their resources.
猎物通常会对捕食风险强度的变化做出行为反应，这些反应常常会显著影响群落动态，但对捕食风险变化的灵活反应要求猎物能够准确且及时地估计捕食风险。我们提出了一个模型，说明猎物的环境应该如何塑造它们用来评估捕食风险的认知规则，并展示这些规则如何影响捕食者对猎物和猎物资源的影响。在该模型中，猎物可以依靠固定的捕食风险估计和由其最近经验形成的灵活的捕食风险估计的组合。当捕食者线索更可靠且捕食者密度较低时，猎物更依赖于经验来估计捕食风险。此外，当猎物的认知规则有利于更多地利用经验来估计捕食风险时，捕食者的存在会对猎物和猎物的资源产生更大的非消耗性影响，通常消耗性影响较小。猎物认知的这些差异也改变了线索可靠性和捕食者密度变化对猎物及其资源的影响。
