Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group, Department of Evolution, Ecology & Behaviour, Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston CH64 7TE, United Kingdom.
Evolution. 2013 Nov;67(11):3371-6. doi: 10.1111/evo.12233. Epub 2013 Sep 11.
Predator-prey arms races are widely speculated to underlie fast speed in terrestrial mammals. However, due to lack of empirical testing, both the specificity of any evolutionary coupling between particular predator and prey species, and the relevance of alternative food-based hypotheses of speed evolution, remain obscure. Here I examine the ecological links between the sprint speed of African savannah herbivores, their vulnerability to predators, and their diet. I show that sprint speed is strongly predicted by the vulnerability of prey to their main predators; however, the direction of the link depends on the hunting style of the predator. Speed increases with vulnerability to pursuit predators, whereas vulnerability to ambush predators is associated with particularly slow speed. These findings suggest that differential vulnerability to specific predators can indeed drive interspecific variation in speed within prey communities, but that predator hunting style influences the intensity and consistency with which selection on speed is coupled between particular species.
捕食者-猎物军备竞赛被广泛认为是陆地哺乳动物快速进化的基础。然而，由于缺乏实证检验，特定捕食者和猎物物种之间任何进化耦合的特异性，以及基于替代食物的速度进化假说的相关性，仍然不清楚。在这里，我研究了非洲热带草原草食动物的冲刺速度与其对捕食者的脆弱性以及其饮食之间的生态联系。我表明，猎物对其主要捕食者的脆弱性强烈预测了冲刺速度；然而，这种联系的方向取决于捕食者的狩猎风格。对于追逐捕食者来说，速度随着脆弱性的增加而增加，而对于伏击捕食者来说，速度则与特别慢的速度相关。这些发现表明，对特定捕食者的不同脆弱性确实可以在猎物群落内驱动速度的种间变异，但是捕食者的狩猎风格影响了速度选择在特定物种之间的耦合强度和一致性。
