6533b7d0fe1ef96bd125b436

RESEARCH PRODUCT

More choosy under a risk of predation or of competition

subject

description

International audience; Animals foraging in the wild face a trade-off between staying safe (i.e. avoiding predation orstarvation) and the quality of the food. We therefore hypothesize that animals will modify their foodselection (choosiness) both under competition and predation risk, but that the direction and theamount of change in choosiness will depend on the level of risk they face.To test this hypothesis, the foraging behaviour of the carabid beetle, Harpalus affinis, was examinedunder 4 different experimental conditions: predation risk, intra- and interspecific competition and acontrol.Our results show that when foraging under the risk of predation or competition animals reduce theirchoosiness. We show that the effect of predation risk on choosiness is two times stronger than theeffect of intra- and interspecific food competition. Thus, H. affinis individuals are able to finely adjusttheir choosiness in response to the level of risk they face.