Custos sociais na economia da fuga de predadores do lagarto Eurolophosaurus nanuzae

Abstract

Anti-predatory behaviours are behaviours present in basically every species of animal on the planet. One of the most common anti-predatory behaviour is predator escape. But one thing that many people do not know abandoning the habitat to escape the predator does not only involve the risks of being preyed, but also the costs that can be generated when the prey abandons the activities it was doing. In territorial species, prey can suffer greater costs, such as the loss of mating territories or even a reproductive opportunity, so they tend to be more resistant to flight than prey that are not at risk. But the few studies that have evaluated the influence of these costs on escape behaviour are generally limited to simply evaluating the effect of the presence of conspecifics on the anti-predatory behaviours adopted by prey. As in many species this social environment can vary according to the time of year or the availability of resources, evaluating only the presence of conspecifics can provide limited information about the influence of the social context on the modulation of escape behaviour. In this thesis, we evaluated how the social context, more specifically the influence of the presence of females and their sexual receptivity and also the identity of the intruder (familiar neighbour or unfamiliar intruder), can influence the anti-predatory strategies adopted by males. We observed that males assume greater predatory risk in the presence of fertile females when compared to the presence of non-fertile females. Additionally, males assume greater predatory risk in the presence of unfamiliar intruders than in the presence of familiar individuals located in neighbouring territories. This result indicates that the male's previous history of social interactions is also an important factor modulating territorial males' escape decisions. Finally, using an individual-based simulation model, we observed that the presence of females appears to be the most important factor in the evolution of male anti-predatory behaviour.