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Evolutionary race as predators hunt prey

Remote-sensing data for wild animals such as lions reveal that predators and prey optimize manoeuvrability rather than speed during the hunt.
  1. Andrew A. Biewener

    1. Andrew A. Biewener is in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Massachusetts 01730, USA.

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The survival of predators and prey depends on their respective abilities to successfully chase food and escape capture, thereby exerting strong selective pressure on their running ability and behavioural strategies. Perhaps nowhere on Earth does this play out more dramatically than on the African savannah, where the fastest terrestrial predators chase their fleet-footed prey. Yet direct measures of the key factors driving this type of hunt performance in the wild are difficult to obtain. In a paper published in Nature, Wilson et al.1 report findings from their use of data-capturing collars to track the movement dynamics of wild animals in Botswana during hunts. The authors also conducted computer modelling of predator–prey interactions and carried out laboratory tests to assess the properties of the animals’ muscles.

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Nature 554, 176-178 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-01278-w

References

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