Prey Defense

Abstract

The world is full of hostile exploiters trying to take full advantage of their resources. The same selective forces that make consumers efficient at foraging are therefore also responsible for making the resources sufficiently unattractive as food. As the lion becomes more and more efficient at killing zebras, the zebra would become more and more efficient detecting or evading lions. This coevolutionary arms-race analogy is appealing, but nevertheless questionable. Among others, Vermeij (1982), Abrams (1986), and Malcolm (1992) have argued that the details of the mechanisms regulating prey capture (primarily the functional response) and the exact nature of costs and benefits associated with prey defensive actions and predators foraging efficiency must be understood before we can infer an arms-race situation. This does not mean, however, that there is no room for coevolutionary processes in predator—prey interactions. In this chapter, we consider how prey defense may alter the interaction between themselves and their predators. An intriguing aspect of prey defense mechanisms is how sessile organisms, such as plants, may overcome the constant threat of being eaten.