Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis.
Biol Lett
; 6(4): 458-61, 2010 Aug 23.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20164080
Many studies have focused on the effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication, but only a few have looked at its effect on other behavioural systems. We designed a playback experiment to test the effect of noise on predation risk assessment. We found that in response to boat motor playback, Caribbean hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus) allowed a simulated predator to approach closer before they hid. Two hypotheses may explain how boat noise affected risk assessment: it masked an approaching predator's sound; and/or it reallocated some of the crabs' finite attention, effectively distracting them, and thus preventing them from responding to an approaching threat. We found no support for the first hypothesis: a silent looming object still got closer during boat motor playbacks than during silence. However, we found support for the attentional hypothesis: when we added flashing lights to the boat motor noise to further distract the hermit crabs, we were able to approach the crabs more closely than with the noise alone. Anthropogenic sounds may thus distract prey and make them more vulnerable to predation.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Atenção
/
Comportamento Animal
/
Anomuros
/
Reação de Fuga
/
Ruído
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Animals
/
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Caribe
/
Caribe ingles
/
Islas virgenes de los estados unidos
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biol Lett
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2010
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos
País de publicação:
Reino Unido