[Project] TestCor - Testing the control of predation risk hypothesis

Context

Predation is a strong evolutionary force, and virtually all species have evolved behavioural and physiological responses to reduce predation risk, so that prey benefit from increased fitness despite the fact that these responses carry costs. These costs are the mechanisms underlying the non-consumptive effects of predation, which have been shown to be ecologically important, and sometimes as great as consumptive effects. These costs most often arise from a reduction in foraging (foraging-safety trade-offs), or from the mounting of a stress response that can have deleterious effects on the long run. However, there are currently no theory to predict and explain when and why one type of response, or the two, would be observed.

Creel (2018) recently proposed the ‘control of risk’ (COR) hypothesis, predicting that “proactive responses to predictable and controllable aspects of risk will generally have food-mediated costs, while reactive responses to unpredictable or uncontrollable aspects of predation risk will generally have stress-mediated costs”. This hypothesis allow explaining the diversity of responses observed, and sometimes apparent contradictions. However, as stated by Creel himself, “strong tests of the COR hypothesis will require more studies of responses to natural variation in predation risk and the physiological consequences of these responses”.