Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026
08:37
A Video Demonstration of Preserved Piloting by Scent Tracking but Impaired Dead Reckoning After Fimbria-Fornix Lesions in the Rat
Published on: April 24, 2009
Directional preference may enhance hunting accuracy in foraging foxes
Jaroslav Červený1, Sabine Begall, Petr Koubek
1Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry, Wildlife and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Suchdol, Czech Republic.
Biology Letters
|January 14, 2011
Summary
Red foxes use a hunting technique called mousing, relying on hearing to pinpoint prey. Their directional jumps, particularly north-east, suggest magnetic alignment enhances hunting success in challenging conditions.
Area of Science:
- Ethology
- Animal Behavior
- Sensory Ecology
Background:
- Red foxes exhibit 'mousing,' a specialized hunting behavior involving a high leap to ambush prey.
- Auditory cues are crucial for locating small animals in environments with limited visibility, such as tall grass or snow cover.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the sensory modalities and directional tendencies influencing red fox hunting success.
- To explore the potential role of magnetic alignment in the precision of fox hunting attacks.
Main Methods:
- Observational studies of red fox hunting behavior, focusing on prey location and attack direction.
- Analysis of attack success rates in relation to compass direction, environmental conditions, and time.
Main Results:
- Foxes demonstrate heightened auditory attention when preparing to jump.
- Hunting attacks showed a significant directional preference, clustering towards the north-east.
- Successful attacks were predominantly observed when foxes jumped in a northerly direction, especially under snow or in high vegetation.
Conclusions:
- The directional preference in red fox hunting attacks suggests a potential magnetic alignment mechanism.
- This magnetic alignment may enhance the precision and success rate of 'mousing' behavior, particularly in visually obstructed environments.
Related Concept Videos
00:48Optimal Foraging
How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
01:32What is Natural Selection?
Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.The Theory of Natural...
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.Although predation is commonly associated with carnivory, for...
01:46Types of Selection
Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
01:20Mate Choice
Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.
01:21Frequency-dependent Selection
When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.Positive Frequency-Dependent SelectionIn positive...