Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus

Abstract

Develops an abstraction of the predation process in which several components of predation risk are identified. An animal's ability to assess and behaviorally control one or more of these components strongly influences decision making in feeding animals, as well as in animals deciding when and how to escape predators, when and how to be social, or even, for fishes, when and how to breathe air. Such decision making reflects apparent trade-offs between risk of predation and benefits to be gained from engaging in a given activity. Several areas in the study of animal behavior have received little or no attention from a predation perspective, the most important of which is that dealing with animal reproduction. Much work also remains regarding the precise nature of the risk of predation and how it is actually perceived by animals, and the extent to which they can behaviorally control their risk of predation. -from Authors