The value of a mouthful: Flight initiation distance as an opportunity cost
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/eje-2015-0006Keywords:
eye size, flight initiation distance, mobile prey, opportunity cost, risk taking, survival rateAbstract
Flight initiation distance of animals when approached by a potential predator reflects the risk that an individual is willing to take when the individual has to gauge the value of staying put relative to the cost of flight. I predicted that this cost–benefit balance would depend on the opportunity cost of fleeing. This opportunity cost can be estimated as the difference in flight initiation distance (FID) between an individual engaged in eating rather than just loafing. I estimated FID of 55 species of birds when approached by a human whilst eating or loafing. There was highly significant variation in difference in FID between these two situations amongst species. Species eating mobile food that is difficult to catch showed little difference in FID between the two situations, whilst species eating immobile food such as seeds had longer FID when eating than when loafing. This difference was fully attributed to differences in relative eye size, because species that had longer FIDs when foraging rather than loafing had small eyes, whilst species with long FIDs when loafing rather than foraging had large eyes. Species with long FIDs, when foraging compared to loafing, had low adult annual survival rates and vice versa. This effect was independent of whether mobile or immobile food was consumed. These findings suggest that individuals of different species adjust their FID to the probability of adult survival and also that differences in visual acuity among species as reflected by eye size linked to differences in food mobility affect the opportunity cost of risk taking.
References
life history and natural history traits affect disturbance tolerance
in birds. Animal Behaviour, 71, 389-399.
Blumstein, D.T., Anthony, L.L., Harcourt, R.G. & Ross, G. (2003) Testing
a key assumption of wildlife buffer zones: is flight initiation
distance a species-specific trait? Biological Conservation, 110,
97-100.
Blumstein, D.T., Fernández-Juricic, E., LeDee, O., Larsen, E., Rodriguez-
Prieto, I. & Zugmeyer, C. (2004) Avian risk assessment: effects of
perching height and detectability. Ethology, 110, 273-285.
Candolin, U. (1998) Reproduction under predation risk and the tradeoff
between current and future reproduction in the threespined
stickleback. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
B, 265, 1171-1175.
Coleman, K. & Wilson, D.S. (1998) Shyness and boldness in pumpkinseed
sunfish: individual differences are context specific. Animal
Behaviour, 56, 927-936.
Cooper, W.E., Jr. & Blumstein, D.T. (2014) Novel effects of monitoring
predators on costs of fleeing and not fleeing explain flushing
early in economic escape theory. Behavioral Ecology, 25, 44-52.
Cooper, W.E., Jr. & Frederick, W.G. (2007) Optimal flight initiation distance.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 244, 59-67.
Cooper, W.E., Jr. & Frederick, W.G. (2010) Predator lethality, optimal
escape behavior, and autotomy. Behavioral Ecology, 21, 91-96.
Cramp, S. & Perrins, C.M. (eds) (1977-1994) The birds of the Western
Palearctic. Vols. 1-9. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Damsgard, B. & Dill, L.M. (1998) Risk-taking behavior in weight-compensating
coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch. Behavioral Ecology,
9, 26-32.
Dill, L.M. (1987) Animal decision making and its ecological consequences;
the future of aquatic ecology and behavior. Canadian Journal
of Zoology, 65, 803-811.
Elliot, A.J. & Thrash, T.M. (2002) Approach-avoidance motivation in
personality: approach and avoidance temperaments and goals.
Journal of Personality and Sociological Psychology, 82, 804-818.
Felsenstein, J. (1985) Phylogenies and the comparative method. American
Naturalist, 125, 1-15.
Frid, A. & Dill, L.M. (2002) Human-caused disturbance stimuli as a form
of predation risk. Conservation Ecology, 6, 11.
Garamszegi, L.Z, Møller, A.P. & Erritzøe, J. (2002) Coevolving avian eye
size and brain size in relation to prey capture and nocturnality.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 269, 961-967.
Garamszegi, L.Z., Eens, M. & Török, J. (2008a) Behavioural syndromes
in free-living collared flycatchers, Ficedula albicollis. Animal Behaviour,
77, 803-812.
Garamszegi, L.Z., Eens, M. & Török, J. (2008b) Birds reveal their personality
when singing. Public Library of Science One, 3, e2647-
e2653.
Garland, Jr., T. (1992) Rate tests for phenotypic evolution using phylogenetically
independent contrasts. American Naturalist, 140,
509-519.
Garland, Jr., T., Harvey, P.H. & Ives AR. 1992. Procedures for the analysis
of comparative data using phylogenetically independent contrasts.
Systematic Biology, 41, 18-32.
Godin, J.J.G. & Smith, S.A. (1988) A fitness cost of foraging in the guppy.
Nature, 333, 69-71.
Godin, J.J.G. & Dugatkin, L.A. (1996) Female mating preference for bold
males in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science of the United States of America, 93,
10262-10267.
Hackett, S.J., Kimball, R.T., Reddy, S., Bowie, R.C.K., Braun, E.L, Braun,
M.J., Chojnowski, J.L., Cox, W.A., Han, K.-L., Harshman, J., Huddleton,
C.J., Marks, B.D., Miglia, K.J., Moore, W.A., Sheldon, F.H.,
Steadman, D.W., Witt, C.C. & Yuri, T. (2008) A phylogenomic
study of birds reveals their evolutionary history. Science, 320,
1763-1768.
Jones, K.E. & Purvis, A. (1997) An optimum body size for mammals?
Comparative evidence from bats. Functional Ecology, 11, 751-
756.
Jønsson, K.A. & Fjeldså, J. (2006) A phylogenetic supertree of oscine
passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zoologica Scripta, 35, 149-186.
Kavaliers, M. & Choleris, E. (2001) Antipredator responses and defensive
behavior: ecological and ethological approaches for the
neurosciences. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 25,
577-586.
Koivula, K., Lahti, K., Rytkönen, S. & Orell, M. (1994) Do subordinates
expose themselves to predation? Field experiments on feeding
site selection by willow tits. Journal of Avian Biology, 25, 178-
183.
Krause, J., Loader, S.P., McDermott, J. & Ruxton, G.D. (1998) Refuge use
by fish as a function of body length-related metabolic expenditure
and predation risks. Proceedings of the Royal Society of
London B, 265, 2373-2379.
Møller, A.P. (2008a) Flight distance and blood parasites in birds. Behavioral
Ecology, 19, 1305-1313.
Møller, A.P. (2008b) Flight distance of urban birds, predation and selection
for urban life. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 63,
63-75.
Møller, A.P. (2008c) Flight distance and population trends in European
breeding birds. Behavioral Ecology, 19, 1095-1102.
Møller, A.P. & Birkhead, T.R. (1994) The evolution of plumage brightness
in birds is related to extra-pair paternity. Evolution, 48,
1089-1100.
Møller, A.P., Nielsen, J.T. & Garamszegi, L.Z. (2008) Risk taking by singing
males. Behavioral Ecology, 19, 41-53.
Møller, A.P. & Erritzøe, J. (2010) Flight distance and eye size in birds.
Ethology, 116, 458-465.
Møller, A.P. & Garamszegi, L.Z. (2012) Between individual variation in
risk taking behavior and its life history consequences. Behavioral
Ecology, 23, 843-853.
Møller, A.P. & Erritzøe, J. (2014) Predator-prey interactions, flight initiation
distance and brain size. Journal of Evolutionary Biology,
27, 34-42.
Purvis, A. & Rambaut, A. (1995) Comparative analysis by independent
contrasts (CAIC). Computer and Applied Bioscience, 11, 247-
251.
SAS. 2012. JMP version 10.0. SAS Institute Inc., Cary.
Sih, A. (1997) Prey uncertainty and the balance of antipredator and
feeding needs. American Naturalist, 139, 1052-1069.
Van der Veen, I.T. & Sivars, L.E. (2000) Causes and consequences of
mass loss upon predator encounter: feeding interruption, stress
or fit-for-flight? Functional Ecology, 14, 638-644.
Ydenberg, R.C. & Dill, L.M. (1986) The economics of fleeing from predators.
Advances in the Study of Behaviour, 16, 229-249.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Anders Pape Møller
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright in their articles.
Articles in the European Journal of Ecology published 2020 and after are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Articles in the European Journal of Ecology published 2015-2019 are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 license.
