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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christina Halpin, Professor Candy Rowe
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The evolution and maintenance of toxicity in a prey population is a challenge to evolutionary biologists if the investment in toxin does not benefit the individual. Recent experiments suggest that taste-rejection behaviour enables predators to selectively ingest less toxic individuals, which could stabilize investment in defences. However, we currently do not know if taste rejection of defended prey is accurate across different contexts, and that prey always benefit according to their investment. Using avian predators, we show that the rejection probability does not solely depend on the investment in defence by an individual, but also on the investment by other individuals in the same population. Therefore, taste rejection by predators could lead to destabilization in the investment in defences, and allow variability in prey defences to exist. © 2010 The Royal Society.
Author(s): Halpin C, Rowe C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Biology Letters
Year: 2010
Volume: 6
Issue: 5
Pages: 617-619
Print publication date: 24/03/2010
ISSN (print): 1744-9561
ISSN (electronic): 1744-957X
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0153
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0153
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