This paper describes multi-agent learning experiments performed on tactical sequences of the pursuit evasion game on very small grids. It underlines the performance difference between a centralized approach and a distributed approach when using Rmax, a model-based reinforcement learning algorithm. The prey’s goal is to go out of the grid and the predators’ goal is to kill the prey. The prey may...

Much of the plasticity that prey exhibit in response to predators is linked to the prey's immediate background level of risk. However, we know almost nothing of how background risk influences how prey learn to categorize predators and non-predators. Learning non-predators probably represents one of the most underappreciated aspects of anti-predator decision-making. Here, we provide larval damse...

Coevolution between parasites and hosts or predators and prey often involves multiple species with similar kinds of defenses and counter-defenses. Classic examples include the interactions between phytophagous insects and their host plants, thick-shelled invertebrates and their shell-crushing predators, and ungulates and their predators. There are three major hypotheses for the nonequilibrium c...

predators may adjust their foraging behavior according to herbivore induced plant volatiles innately or through learning. here, first we investigated whether the phytoseiid predatory mites, neoseiulus californicus and n. barkeri were innately able to respond to odors related to tetranychus urticae infested bean leaves. the naïve predator females were reared on washed t. urticae as prey on filte...

Dispersing predators and prey can exhibit complex spatio-temporal wave-like patterns if the interactions between them cause oscillatory dynamics. We study the effect of these predator-prey density waves on the competition between prey populations and between predator populations with different dispersal strategies. We first describe 1- and 2-dimensional simulations of both discrete and continuo...

Determining where, when and how much animals eat is fundamental to understanding their ecology. We developed a technique to identify a prey capture signature for little penguins from accelerometry, in order to quantify food intake remotely. We categorised behaviour of captive penguins from HD video and matched this to time-series data from back-mounted accelerometers. We then trained a support ...

Omnivorous arthropods make dietary choices according to the environment in which they forage, mainly availability/quality of plant and/or prey resources. Such decisions and their subsequent impacts on life-history traits may be affected by the availability of nutrients and water to plants, that is, through bottom-up forces. By setting up arenas for feeding behavior observation as well as glassh...

Hundreds of studies have investigated the sources and nature of information that prey gather about their predators and the ways in which prey use this information to mediate their risk of predation. However, relatively little theoretical or empirical work has considered the question of how long information should be maintained and used by prey animals in making behavioural decisions. Here, we t...