Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism

Abstract Many prey species perform deimatic displays that are thought to scare or startle would-be predators, or elicit other reflexive responses that lead to attacks being delayed or abandoned. The form of these displays differs among species, but often includes prey revealing previously-hidden con...

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Autores principales:	Grace G. Holmes, Emeline Delferrière, Candy Rowe, Jolyon Troscianko, John Skelhorn
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/849e8441b2214f0b8661e02e81f879db
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:849e8441b2214f0b8661e02e81f879db
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:849e8441b2214f0b8661e02e81f879db2021-12-02T16:08:14ZTesting the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism10.1038/s41598-018-28565-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/849e8441b2214f0b8661e02e81f879db2018-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28565-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Many prey species perform deimatic displays that are thought to scare or startle would-be predators, or elicit other reflexive responses that lead to attacks being delayed or abandoned. The form of these displays differs among species, but often includes prey revealing previously-hidden conspicuous visual components. The evolutionary route(s) to deimatism are poorly understood, but it has recently been suggested that the behavioural component of the displays evolves first followed by a conspicuous visual component. This is known as the “startle-first hypothesis”. Here we use an experimental system in which naïve domestic chicks forage for artificial deimatic prey to test the two key predictions of this hypothesis: (1) that movement can deter predators in the absence of conspicuously coloured display components; and, (2) that the combination of movement and conspicuously coloured display components is more effective than movement alone. We show that both these predictions hold, but only when the movement is fast. We thus provide evidence for the feasibility of ‘the startle-first hypothesis’ of the evolution of deimatism.Grace G. HolmesEmeline DelferrièreCandy RoweJolyon TrosciankoJohn SkelhornNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Grace G. Holmes Emeline Delferrière Candy Rowe Jolyon Troscianko John Skelhorn Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
description	Abstract Many prey species perform deimatic displays that are thought to scare or startle would-be predators, or elicit other reflexive responses that lead to attacks being delayed or abandoned. The form of these displays differs among species, but often includes prey revealing previously-hidden conspicuous visual components. The evolutionary route(s) to deimatism are poorly understood, but it has recently been suggested that the behavioural component of the displays evolves first followed by a conspicuous visual component. This is known as the “startle-first hypothesis”. Here we use an experimental system in which naïve domestic chicks forage for artificial deimatic prey to test the two key predictions of this hypothesis: (1) that movement can deter predators in the absence of conspicuously coloured display components; and, (2) that the combination of movement and conspicuously coloured display components is more effective than movement alone. We show that both these predictions hold, but only when the movement is fast. We thus provide evidence for the feasibility of ‘the startle-first hypothesis’ of the evolution of deimatism.
format	article
author	Grace G. Holmes Emeline Delferrière Candy Rowe Jolyon Troscianko John Skelhorn
author_facet	Grace G. Holmes Emeline Delferrière Candy Rowe Jolyon Troscianko John Skelhorn
author_sort	Grace G. Holmes
title	Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
title_short	Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
title_full	Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
title_fullStr	Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
title_full_unstemmed	Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
title_sort	testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/849e8441b2214f0b8661e02e81f879db
work_keys_str_mv	AT gracegholmes testingthefeasibilityofthestartlefirstroutetodeimatism AT emelinedelferriere testingthefeasibilityofthestartlefirstroutetodeimatism AT candyrowe testingthefeasibilityofthestartlefirstroutetodeimatism AT jolyontroscianko testingthefeasibilityofthestartlefirstroutetodeimatism AT johnskelhorn testingthefeasibilityofthestartlefirstroutetodeimatism
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Testing the feasibility of the startle-first route to deimatism

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