scholarly journals Covid-19: WHO says laboratory escape theory is “extremely unlikely” after mission to China

BMJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. n428
Author(s):  
Owen Dyer
Keyword(s):  
Escape Theory

Stop-and-go approach by a predator: a novel predation risk factor for the phrynosomatid lizards Sceloporus virgatus and Callisaurus draconoides

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-409
Author(s):  
William E. Cooper ◽  
Wade C. Sherbrooke
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiments ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Stop And Go ◽  
Approach Speed ◽  
Sceloporus Virgatus ◽  
Escape Behaviors ◽  
Flight Initiation

As an immobile prey monitors an approaching predator, the predator may move at a constant speed directly toward the prey or on a path that bypasses the prey. These scenarios have been studied extensively. Economic escape theory successfully predicts flight initiation distance (FID = predator-prey distance when escape begins). However, predators often alter their speed and may exhibit stops and starts during approaches. Empirical studies have shown that prey rapidly adjust assessed risk to a predator’s changes in approach speed and direction, but effects of interrupted (stop-start) approach are unknown. Because a prey is likely to assess that a nearby predator that resumes approaching has detected it and is attacking, escape theory predicts that assessed risk is greater at a given predator-prey distance when approach resumes than is continuous. Therefore, we predicted that FID is longer when a predator approaches, stops nearby, and renews its approach than when it approaches continuously. Second, although assessed risk increases as duration of the predator’s stop nearby increases, as indicated by latency to flee, we predicted that pause duration does not affect FID because prey interpret resumed approach as attack. Field experiments with two lizards, Sceloporus virgatus and Callisaurus draconoides, verified the predictions: FID was longer for discontinuous than continuous approaches and pause duration did not affect FID. We also observed distance fled and probability of entering refuge, escape behaviors for which theory is undeveloped. Distance fled was unrelated to continuity of approach in both species, as was refuge entry in S. virgatus.

Intraspecific variation in tree lizard escape behaviour in relation to habitat and temperature

Behaviour ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 157 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Morris ◽  
Matthew S. Lattanzio
Keyword(s):  
Antipredator Behaviour ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Escape Behaviour ◽  
Urosaurus Ornatus ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Habitat Gradients ◽  
Disturbance Gradient ◽  
Tree Lizards ◽  
Tree Lizard

Abstract Optimal escape theory has proven useful for understanding the dynamics of antipredator behaviour in animals; however, approaches are often limited to single-population studies. We studied how the escape behaviour of tree lizards (Urosaurus ornatus) varied across a disturbance gradient. We also considered how sex, body temperature, and perch temperature affected their escape decisions. Both sexes exhibited similar response patterns; however, lizards in the most-disturbed habitat, as well as cooler (body or perch temperature) lizards, initiated escape earlier (but did not flee further) than other animals. Increased wariness as indicated by earlier escape suggests that frequently-disturbed, more-open localities may be stressful habitats for species like U. ornatus. In addition, because cooler temperatures limit locomotor performance capacity, escape decisions should also depend on a species’ thermal ecology. Overall, we stress the importance of multi-population approaches for capturing the variety of ways species adaptively respond to the threat of predation across habitat gradients.

scholarly journals Suicidal Ideation in Elite Schools: A Test of the Interpersonal Theory and the Escape Theory of Suicide

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-210
Author(s):  
Hélène Landrault ◽  
Nemat Jaafari ◽  
Mohamed Amine ◽  
Gabriel Malka ◽  
Leila Selimbegović ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Interpersonal Theory ◽  
Elite Schools ◽  
Escape Theory

Application of Escape Theory to Binge Eating and Suicidality in College Women

1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Hyland Tassava ◽  
Audrey J. Ruderman
Keyword(s):  
Binge Eating ◽  
College Women ◽  
Escape Theory

Compensatory changes in escape and refuge use following autotomy in the lizard Sceloporus virgatus

2007 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.E. Cooper, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Body Part ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Flight Initiation Distance ◽  
Refuge Use ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Antipredatory Strategies ◽  
Sceloporus Virgatus ◽  
Flight Initiation ◽  
Predator Effects

Following autotomy of a body part to escape from a predator, prey may alter antipredatory strategies to compensate for the inability to use autotomy and impaired escape ability. Because prey that have been captured may increase their assessment of risk posed by a predator, effects of capture may have been attributed to autotomy. I conducted an experiment using three groups of striped plateau lizards ( Sceloporus virgatus Smith, 1938): control, captured, and autotomized. Captured and autotomized lizards were less active on the day after autotomy than controls. Flight initiation distance and distance fled were greater in both experimental groups than in the control group, but did not differ between experimental groups. Flight initiation distance was greater in autotomized than in captured lizards only in males. No sex difference occurred for distance fled. Autotomized lizards entered refuges more than other groups. Escape strategy changed after autotomy to increased reliance on refuge and, in males, to increased flight initiation distance; behaviours that are appropriate to compensate for impaired escape ability. Decreased activity and increased distance fled might erroneously have been considered effects of autotomy, had effects of capture not been assessed. Predictions of escape theory that flight initiation distance and distance fled increase with predation risk were supported.

Risk factors affecting escape behavior by the desert iguana, Dipsosaurus dorsalis: speed and directness of predator approach, degree of cover, direction of turning by a predator, and temperature

2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 979-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
W E Cooper Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Body Temperature ◽  
Escape Behavior ◽  
Primary Response ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Approach Distance ◽  
Dipsosaurus Dorsalis ◽  
Air Temperatures

Escape from predators by desert iguanas (Dipsosaurus dorsalis) conforms to predictions of optimal escape theory based on risk. I simulated an approaching predator to study risk factors. The primary response variable was approach distance (= flight-initiation distance), i.e., the distance between predator and prey when the prey initiates escape. In additional studies, I recorded whether lizards permitted me to approach close enough to noose them (an indicator of wariness) and the method of escape. Approach distance was greater when the predator approached rapidly than slowly and directly than indirectly, and when the predator turned toward the lizard rather than away. It was greater in open than in more densely covered habitats, which may reflect greater risk due to conspicuousness and (or) a greater distance to refuge. Early in the day at lower air temperatures, desert iguanas permitted a closer approach before initiating escape. While basking after emergence from burrows, lizards escaped into burrows; later in the day they fled. Lizards that fled had high body temperatures; a single individual captured immediately after entering a burrow had a lower body temperature. Lizards presumably enter burrows when low body temperature limits the running speed, but burrow use is costly because attainment of the activity temperature is delayed because of time elapsed and the temperature decrease in burrows.

Flight initiation distance is differentially sensitive to the costs of staying and leaving food patches in a small-mammal prey

2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 1016-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio A. Lagos ◽  
Andrea Meier ◽  
Liliana Ortiz Tolhuysen ◽  
Rodrigo A. Castro ◽  
Francisco Bozinovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Mammal ◽  
Antipredator Behavior ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Flight Initiation Distance ◽  
Food Patch ◽  
Supplementary Food ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Flight Initiation

Escape theory predicts that a prey should flee from an approaching predator at a point in which the cost of staying equals the cost of escape. We manipulated the cost of fleeing upon approaching human predators by providing the small mammal Octodon degus (Molina, 1782) with varying amounts of supplementary food likely to disappear while the animals are not in the food patch (e.g., hidden in their burrows). Simultaneously, we manipulated the risk of remaining in the patch by providing supplementary food at varying distances from the nearest burrow. Degus fled at a shorter distance to approaching predators when foraging in patches closer to the nearest burrow and supplied with relatively high abundance of food, but only when these rodents were foraging socially. Also, degus fled at a greater distance to approaching predators when foraging in patches far from the nearest burrow. Thus, functions linked to the loss of feeding opportunities and the risk of predation interact to influence flight initiation distance after a simulated attack. This study represented one of the few demonstrations of an interactive effect between cost and risks on antipredator behavior in a small, social prey mammal.

Opposite companion effect on flight initiation distance in sympatric species: plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) and White-rumped Snowfinch (Onychostruthus taczanowskii)

2016 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
He Zhang ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Yanping Hu ◽  
Yanming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Linear Models ◽  
Antipredator Behavior ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Flight Initiation Distance ◽  
Plateau Pika ◽  
Escape Theory ◽  
Ochotona Curzoniae ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Escape Decision ◽  
Flight Initiation

There are many factors influencing prey’s risk perception and escape decision during predator–prey encounters. The distance at which animals move away from perceived danger (often quantified as flight initiation distance or FID) has been used by behavioral ecologists to understand the economics of antipredator behavior. Using general linear models, we investigated escape decision-making processes in plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae (Hodgson, 1858)) and White-rumped Snowfinch (Onychostruthus taczanowskii (Prjevalsky, 1876), formerly known as Montifringilla taczanowskii Przewalski, 1876) together and we found that (i) there are significant positive correlations between starting distance and FID in both species; (ii) pika escapes at a longer distance from an approaching intruder when it is far from its burrow; (iii) foraging animals tolerate closer distances than watching ones, both in pikas and in Snowfinches; (iv) conspecifics seem to have no effect on pikas’ escaping behavior, while the appearance of Snowfinches dramatically decreases the FID of pikas. On the contrary, conspecifics significantly decrease the FID of Snowfinches, while the presence of pikas has no effects. These findings provide new evidence, which are consistent with optimal escape theory. These novel results in multispecies interactions prompt us to pay attention to the potential relationship between pikas and Snowfinches, as well as the “bird–pika in one hole” phenomenon.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document