Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE ZOOLOGIE
Volume 87, Issue 10, Pages 912-919Publisher
NATL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA-N R C RESEARCH PRESS
DOI: 10.1139/Z09-077
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Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Education and Science [REN2003 08432 CO2 02, CGL2006-10893 CO2-02]
- Pippert Research Scholar award
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Prey often exhibit reduced escape behavior on islands where predators are absent or scarce. Models of escape and refuge use predict that prey from populations having lower predation pressure have shortened flight initiation distance (FID; distance between a predator and a prey when escape begins), reduced distance fled and tendency to enter refuge, and shortened hiding time before emerging from refuge. By ourselves simulating approaching predators, we tested these predictions for two populations of the Balearic lizard, Podarcis lilfordi (Muller, 1927), on the islets of Rei (higher predation pressure) and Aire (lower) adjacent to Menorca. FID, distance fled, and hiding time were shorter and probability of entering refuge was lower on Aire than on Rei, confirming all predictions. All effect sizes were large, indicating major differences in antipredatory behavior between islets. These findings are consistent with data for other lizards on FID and limited data on distance fled and refuge entry. The effect of predation pressure on hiding time is a novel finding. Our results and those of previous studies suggest that relaxation of predation pressure leads to reduced natural selection for maintenance of antipredatory behavior at all stages of predator-prey interactions over a relatively short time span.
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