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Anti-predator adaptation in action: the kitefin shark (a–c) and the Atlantic wreckfish (d–f) attempt to prey on hagfishes. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths.
A white-headed dwarf gecko with tail lost due to autotomy. Autotomy (from the Greek auto-, "self-" and tome, "severing", αὐτοτομία) or 'self-amputation', is the behaviour whereby an animal sheds or discards an appendage, [1] usually as a self-defense mechanism to elude a predator's grasp or to distract the predator and thereby allow escape.
Note: Some topics in this category are adaptations of both predators and prey (e.g. crypsis), so also appear in the parent category predation Subcategories This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Mobbing in animals is an anti-predator adaptation in which individuals of prey species cooperatively attack or harass a predator, usually to protect their offspring. A simple definition of mobbing is an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator. [1]
Predator satiation has evolved as a reproductive pattern in periodical cicadas of the genus Magicicada. [1]Predator satiation (less commonly called predator saturation) is an anti-predator adaptation in which prey briefly occur at high population densities, reducing the probability of an individual organism being eaten. [2]
For example, the hemipteran Arachnocoris berytoides resembles Faiditus caudatus, a spider commensal of ants. [34] In cryptic aggressive mimicry, the predator mimics an organism that its prey is indifferent to. This allows the predator to avoid detection until the prey are close enough for the predator to strike, effectively a form of camouflage.
Apparent death is a form of animal deception considered to be an anti-predator strategy, but it can also be used as a form of aggressive mimicry. When induced by humans, the state is sometimes colloquially known as animal hypnosis .
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.