When a predator attacks, prey are faced with a series of 'if', 'when' and 'how' escape decisions – these critical questions are the foci of this book. Cooper and Blumstein bring together a balance of theory and empirical research to summarise over fifty years of scattered research and benchmark current thinking in the rapidly expanding literature on the behavioural ecology of escaping. The book consolidates current and new behaviour models with taxonomically divided empirical chapters that demonstrate the application of escape theory to different groups. The chapters integrate behaviour with physiology, genetics and evolution to lead the reader through the complex decisions faced by prey during a predator attack, examining how these decisions interact with life history and individual variation. The chapter on best practice field methodology and the ideas for future research presented throughout, ensure this volume is practical as well as informative.

Bringing together theory and reality of prey escape from predators, this book benchmarks new and current thinking in escape ecology.

The forces of natural selection have been a primary driver in the evolution of adaptive animal behaviours. On the one hand animals must evade predation in order to survive and pass on their genes; on other hand, and for the same underlying reasons, animals must also be capable of successfully capturing prey. This situation has led to an evolutionary arms race in which predator and prey are locked in the battle to survive. A common strategy in each situation is to enhance the speed of response, resulting in the evolution of neural, muscular and biomechanical designs that produce supremely fast and eye-catching behavioral responses. The aim of this book is to illuminate the design principles of escape and predatory behaviours using a series of case histories from different animal groups and to emphasize the convergent evolution of neural circuitry that optimizes the chances of survival. Using these case histories the authors describe sensory mechanisms that aid prey and predator detection, central neural circuit designs that increase speed of response and neuromuscular and biomechanical properties that aid the performance of escape and predatory movements.

This book presents a unique fusion of two different research topics. One is related to the traditional mathematical problem of chases and escapes. The problem mainly deals with a situation where a chaser pursues an evader to analyze their trajectories and capture time. It dates back more than 300 years and has developed in various directions such as differential games. The other topic is the recently developing field of collective behavior, which investigates origins and properties of emergent behavior in groups of self-driving units. Applications include schools of fish, flocks of birds, and traffic jams. This book first reviews representative topics, both old and new, from these two areas. Then it presents the combined research topic of "group chase and escape", recently proposed by the authors. Although the combination is simple and straightforward, the book describes the emergence of rather intricate behavior, provoking the interest of readers for further developments and applications of related topics.

This book discusses the evolution of the mechanisms by which prey avoid attack by their potential predators and questions how such defences are maintained through natural selection. Topics covered include camouflage, warning signals and mimicry.

Animals sure are smart because they know how to blend in to protect themselves! Scientifically, that’s called camouflage. You will be learning more about camouflage, as well as the animals that use such defenses mechanism, by going over the pages of this picture book for 8-year-olds. Have a fantastic time reading!