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Risk-induced neophobia: does sensory modality matter?
- Source :
-
Animal cognition [Anim Cogn] 2016 Nov; Vol. 19 (6), pp. 1143-1150. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Aug 05. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Recent studies have documented that exposure to high levels of background risk can induce neophobic predator avoidance in prey animals, whereby they respond to any novel cue with an anti-predator response. Such phenotypically plastic predator avoidance may allow prey to maximize anti-predator benefits in variable risk environments. It remains poorly understood whether risk assessment information from different sensory modalities can be integrated to induce generalized, cross-sensory system neophobic responses. Here, we directly test this hypothesis by exposing juvenile convict cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) to high- versus low-risk environments using either conspecific alarm cue (chemosensory risk) or a model avian predator (visual/mechanical risk) and testing their response to a novel chemosensory cue (Experiment 1) or visual cue (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that regardless of the sensory modality used to increased perceived risk, cichlids pre-exposed to high-risk conditions exhibited increased predator avoidance in response to any novel visual or chemical cue. As expected, cichlids pre-exposed to low-risk conditions did not display any neophobic responses. Our results suggest that induced neophobia is not cue specific; rather, it may function as a generalized response to perceived predation risk.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1435-9456
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Animal cognition
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 27496204
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1021-2