7/22/2023 0 Comments Example of prey animalsApostatic polymorphism is seen as a special case of protean variation within populations. During phylogeny this is likely to lead to intra-specific and inter-specific increase in the number and diversity of escape behaviours. It is suggested that those prey individuals which employ escape patterns un-familiar to the predator will tend to be at a selective advantage. In many species the confusing effect of changes in movement and behavioural role is enhanced by rapid changes in appearance, particularly colour. In protean deterrence the shuffling of individuals within a tightly packed group prevents a predator from singling one out for attack. In mobbing displays there are also successive changes in the actors' behavioural role. In scatter reactions the effect is of multiple choice and of the simultaneous operation of several single erratics. In a group of prey animals the protean aspect of escape is enhanced by the effect of numbers. This single erratic display occurs widely in the Animal Kingdom, and may also be utilised in everyday movements of potential prey as insurance against possible attack. Single prey animals frequently flee from a predator in an irregular manner, zigzagging, spinning, looping, or bouncing. Protean behaviour is defined as that behaviour which is sufficiently unsystematic to prevent a reactor predicting in detail the position or actions of the actor. Attention is drawn to the widespread occurrence of protean phenomena, in which the appearance and behaviour of prey animals are rendered variable and irregular, as a weapon in the biological arms race between predators and their prey.
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