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Fish predation selects for reduced foraging activity

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Abstract

Despite the importance of foraging activity for the growth/predation risk trade-off, studies that demonstrated predator-induced survival selection on foraging activity under semi-natural conditions are relatively rare. Here, we tested for fish-induced selection for reduced foraging activity in two larval Enallagma damselflies using a field enclosure experiment. Fish imposed considerable mortality in both damselfly species and survival selection on foraging activity could be detected in Enallagma geminatum. We did not detect selection in Enallagma hageni, probably because this species already was not eating very much in the absence of fish compared to E. geminatum. Both species responded strongly to the presence of predators by reducing their foraging activity. The documented survival selection on foraging activity was detected despite the already low activity levels in fish lake prey species and despite strong predator-induced plasticity in this trait.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Luc De Meester, who helped collect the larvae and to the parents of FS, Etienne and Georgette, and Uncle Raf, who helped during the field work in McDaniel's Marsh while showing off their canoe skills, and in the laboratory by picking out damselfly larvae, and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions. FS was supported as a Ph.D. fellow of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Sciences and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen). MDB is postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). This study was funded by FWO research grants and projects of the KULeuven Research Found to RS and NSF grant DEB-0516104 to MAM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Leuven, Ch. Debériotstraat 32, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Francis Strobbe, Marjan De Block & Robby Stoks

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Mark A. McPeek

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  1. Francis Strobbe
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  2. Mark A. McPeek
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  3. Marjan De Block
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  4. Robby Stoks
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Correspondence to Robby Stoks.

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Communicated by: J. Choe

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Strobbe, F., McPeek, M.A., De Block, M. et al. Fish predation selects for reduced foraging activity. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 241–247 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1032-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1032-y

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