Stick or twist: roe deer adjust their flight behaviour to the perceived trade-off between risk and reward

摘要: Because avoiding predation is crucial for fitness, foraging animals must trade acquisition of high-quality resources against risk avoidance when the best occur in locations with high risk. Although optimality models predict distance at which an animal should initiate vigilance and flight, many studies have shown that generally flee soon after detecting approaching threat, supporting ‘flush early avoid risk’ (FEAR) hypothesis. Despite this, flight behaviour varies markedly depending on context, suggesting some behavioural plasticity response prey to a given threat. We evaluated degree responses roe deer, Capreolus capreolus, highly flexible species thrives human-dominated landscapes. Based individually identifiable standardized initiation protocol, we measured deer detected it subsequently initiated flight. Our results provide strong support FEAR hypothesis, alert are strongly coupled deer. However, perceived level both (in terms landscape openness proximity human infrastructure) reward habitat quality) influenced time took detect subsequent threat was tolerated prior Overall, our findings indicate although minimize monitoring costs assessing by fleeing early, they also adjust their local risk–resource trade-off.