Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
There is a strong evolutionary pressure for prey animals to avoid predators through camouflage, and for predators to be able to detect camouflaged prey. There can be a self-perpetuating coevolution, in the shape of an evolutionary arms race, between the perceptive abilities of animals attempting to detect the cryptic animal and the cryptic characteristics of the hiding species.
Escape response in Antarctic krill.. Escape response, escape reaction, or escape behavior is a mechanism by which animals avoid potential predation.It consists of a rapid sequence of movements, or lack of movement, that position the animal in such a way that allows it to hide, freeze, or flee from the supposed predator.
A wide range of animals, e.g. lizards, birds, rodents, and sharks, behave as if dead as an anti-predator adaptation, as predators usually take only live prey. [ 15 ] In beetles, artificial selection experiments have shown that there is heritable variation for length of death-feigning.
Clearly at the zoo giraffes aren't worried about predators, so I wondered if giraffes in captivity sleep longer than those in the wild. ... giraffes only sleep about 4-1/2 hours a day. I guess ...
Tonic immobility occurs after the predator has detected and or made contact with the prey, and is likely used to prevent further attack by the predator or consumption of the prey. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Because tonic immobility occurs later in the predator attack sequence, it is considered a secondary defense mechanism and is therefore distinct from freezing.
While animals performing distraction displays are rarely documented as being killed, risks to the displaying animal do exist. [33] One researcher observed and documented an instance in which a second predator became attracted to an animal already performing a distraction display. The displaying animal was killed by the second predator. [33]
Once a predator has found its prey it will not always attempt to chase or eat it. Prey have other ways of deterring predators from eating them besides avoiding detection. Aposematic plants and animals may have conspicuous coloration such that potential consumers such as a herbivore will avoid eating them based on unpleasant past experiences ...
For example, when predators avoid a mimic that imperfectly resembles a coral snake, the mimic is sufficiently protected. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ] Convergent evolution is an alternative explanation for why coral reef fish have come to resemble each other; [ 29 ] [ 30 ] the same applies to benthic marine invertebrates such as sponges and nudibranchs .