Thapa Himal, Crane Adam L, Achtymichuk Gabrielle H, Sadat Sultan M M, Chivers Douglas P, Ferrari Maud C O
Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Science Pl., Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C8, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, 52 Campus Dr, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Behav Ecol. 2024 Mar 6;35(3):arae014. doi: 10.1093/beheco/arae014. eCollection 2024 May-Jun.
Living with a diverse array of predators provides a significant challenge for prey to learn and retain information about each predator they encounter. Consequently, some prey respond to novel predators because they have previous experience with a perceptually similar predator species, a phenomenon known as generalization of predator recognition. However, it remains unknown whether prey can generalize learned responses across ontogenetic stages of predators. Using wood frog tadpole () prey, we conducted two experiments to explore the extent of predator generalization of different life stages of two different predators: (1) predacious diving beetles ( sp.) and (2) tiger salamanders (). In both experiments, we used chemical alarm cues (i.e., injured conspecific cues) to condition tadpoles to recognize the odor of either the larval or adult stage of the predator as risky. One day later, we tested tadpoles with either the larval or adult predator odor to determine whether they generalized their learned responses to the other life stages of the predator. Tadpoles generalized between larval and adult beetle odors but failed to generalize between larval and adult salamander odors. These results suggest that the odor of some predator species changes during metamorphosis to an extent that reduces their recognisability by prey. This "predator identity reset" increases the number of threats to which prey need to attend.
与各种各样的捕食者共存对猎物来说是一项重大挑战，它们需要学习并记住遇到的每种捕食者的信息。因此，一些猎物会对新出现的捕食者做出反应，因为它们之前有过与外观相似的捕食者物种打交道的经验，这种现象被称为捕食者识别的泛化。然而，猎物是否能在捕食者的个体发育阶段之间泛化习得的反应仍不清楚。我们以木蛙蝌蚪（）为猎物，进行了两项实验，以探究两种不同捕食者的不同生命阶段的捕食者泛化程度：（1） 食肉类潜水甲虫（ 属）和（2） 虎螈（）。在两项实验中，我们都使用化学警报信号（即受伤同类的信号）来让蝌蚪适应将捕食者幼虫或成虫阶段的气味识别为危险信号。一天后，我们用捕食者幼虫或成虫的气味测试蝌蚪，以确定它们是否将习得的反应泛化到捕食者的其他生命阶段。蝌蚪能够在甲虫幼虫和成虫的气味之间进行泛化，但在蝾螈幼虫和成虫的气味之间却无法泛化。这些结果表明，一些捕食者物种的气味在变态过程中发生了变化，以至于猎物对它们的辨识度降低。这种“捕食者身份重置”增加了猎物需要留意的威胁数量。
