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A Real-Time Interactive System for Studying Confrontational Pursuit Behavior in Rodents
Published on: May 16, 2025
573
Behavioural response of prey to repeated attacks by non-coordinating predators
Siddhant Mohapatra1, Pallab Sinha Mahapatra2
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India.
Scientific Reports
|July 2, 2025
Summary
Predators attacking groups may cause prey to split, and high prey coordination can paradoxically increase prey loss during repeated attacks. This challenges simple models of collective defense.
Area of Science:
- Collective behavior
- Predator-prey dynamics
- Agent-based modeling
Background:
- Collective behavior in organisms often evolves to reduce predation risk.
- The impact of persistent, multi-predator attacks on prey behavior is understudied.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate prey behavioral responses to persistent multi-predator attacks.
- To explore the relationship between predator configuration and prey escape strategies.
Main Methods:
- Agent-based modeling using an underdamped Langevin model.
- Analysis of prey response transitions (cohesive vs. split-and-escape).
- Evaluation of predator attack strategies and their success rates.
Main Results:
- Prey escape transitions depend on predator angular configuration.
- Attacking the nearest prey is the most successful strategy.
- Higher prey coordination can lead to faster population decline under repeated attacks.
Conclusions:
- Predator hunting strategies have complex effects on group dynamics, like inducing group splitting.
- Non-additive predation effects highlight the non-scalability of predator-prey systems.
- Excessive prey alignment may be detrimental during successive predator assaults.
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