A predator-prey foraging game in experimental aviaries: effects of the number of goldfish and refuge size

摘要

Background: In a series of aviary experiments, we showed that little egrets (Egretta garzetta, the predators) and common goldfish (Carassius auratus, their prey) play a behavioural game in which the egrets adjust the timing of their predatory visits to experimental pools, and the fish adjust their exposure to predation by moving between a safe habitat that lacks food and a risky habitat that contains food. But we did not determine whether they do so in response to variation in the density of the fish.