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Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks

Use of virtual proxies of live animals are rapidly gaining ground in studies of animal behaviour. Such proxies help to reduce the number of live experimental animals needed to stimulate the behaviour of experimental individuals and to increase standardisation. However, using too simplistic proxies m...

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Autores principales: Watve, Mukta, Prati, Sebastian, Taborsky, Barbara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6925948/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31875146
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8149
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author Watve, Mukta
Prati, Sebastian
Taborsky, Barbara
author_facet Watve, Mukta
Prati, Sebastian
Taborsky, Barbara
author_sort Watve, Mukta
collection PubMed
description Use of virtual proxies of live animals are rapidly gaining ground in studies of animal behaviour. Such proxies help to reduce the number of live experimental animals needed to stimulate the behaviour of experimental individuals and to increase standardisation. However, using too simplistic proxies may fail to induce a desired effect and/or lead to quick habituation. For instance, in a predation context, prey often employ multimodal cues to detect predators or use specific aspects of predator behaviour to assess threat. In a live interaction, predator and prey often show behaviours directed towards each other, which are absent in virtual proxies. Here we compared the effectiveness of chemical and visual predator cues in the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher, a species in which predation pressure has been the evolutionary driver of its sociality. We created playbacks of predators simulating an attack and tested their effectiveness in comparison to a playback showing regular activity and to a live predator. We further compared the effectiveness of predator odour and conspecific skin extracts on behaviours directed towards a predator playback. Regular playbacks of calmly swimming predators were less effective than live predators in stimulating a focal individual’s aggression and attention. However, playbacks mimicking an attacking predator induced responses much like a live predator. Chemical cues did not affect predator directed behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-69259482019-12-24 Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks Watve, Mukta Prati, Sebastian Taborsky, Barbara PeerJ Animal Behavior Use of virtual proxies of live animals are rapidly gaining ground in studies of animal behaviour. Such proxies help to reduce the number of live experimental animals needed to stimulate the behaviour of experimental individuals and to increase standardisation. However, using too simplistic proxies may fail to induce a desired effect and/or lead to quick habituation. For instance, in a predation context, prey often employ multimodal cues to detect predators or use specific aspects of predator behaviour to assess threat. In a live interaction, predator and prey often show behaviours directed towards each other, which are absent in virtual proxies. Here we compared the effectiveness of chemical and visual predator cues in the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher, a species in which predation pressure has been the evolutionary driver of its sociality. We created playbacks of predators simulating an attack and tested their effectiveness in comparison to a playback showing regular activity and to a live predator. We further compared the effectiveness of predator odour and conspecific skin extracts on behaviours directed towards a predator playback. Regular playbacks of calmly swimming predators were less effective than live predators in stimulating a focal individual’s aggression and attention. However, playbacks mimicking an attacking predator induced responses much like a live predator. Chemical cues did not affect predator directed behaviour. PeerJ Inc. 2019-12-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6925948/ /pubmed/31875146 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8149 Text en ©2019 Watve et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Watve, Mukta
Prati, Sebastian
Taborsky, Barbara
Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title_full Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title_fullStr Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title_full_unstemmed Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title_short Simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
title_sort simulating more realistic predation threat using attack playbacks
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6925948/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31875146
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8149
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