Abstract:
Neophobia, the fear of novel stimuli, plays a major role in animal ecology. Here, we review studies on predator neophobia and explore its underlying patterns within an ecological framework. Predator neophobia is typically assessed by observing behaviours in novel areas that bring potential risk from unknown predators, or by observing behaviours towards certain kinds of objects and odours that are novel. We conducted a literature review across taxa, surveying research on baseline and induced neophobia versus controls. We calculated effect sizes for the intensity of neophobic responses, and categorized data according to six factors (taxa, age class, background type, trophic position, test cue type and experimental treatment type). While accounting for each of the other factors, we found that baseline neophobia was stronger among birds and mammals, and towards novel areas, relative to other taxa and cue types. Baseline neophobia was lower for wild-caught animals and for those that were higher in trophic position, compared with those reared in captivity and from lower trophic levels. By contrast, induced neophobia was similar in intensity across taxa, background types and testing cue types, while again being lower among upper trophic-level members and among juvenile animals. Although induced neophobia occurred across all treatment types, brain lesions induced stronger neophobia than predation risk or social isolation. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these results and highlight gaps in the literature.
摘要:
新恐惧症,对新奇刺激的恐惧,在动物生态学中起着重要作用。这里,我们回顾了关于捕食者恐惧症的研究,并在生态框架内探索其潜在模式。捕食者恐惧症通常通过观察新区域的行为来评估,这些行为会带来未知捕食者的潜在风险,或者通过观察某些新奇的物体和气味的行为。我们对分类单元进行了文献综述,基线和诱发性恐惧症与对照的调查研究。我们计算了新恐惧症反应强度的效应大小,并根据六个因素对数据进行分类(分类单元,年龄组,背景类型,营养位置,测试提示类型和实验处理类型)。在考虑其他因素的同时,我们发现基线的新恐惧症在鸟类和哺乳动物中更强,走向新的领域,相对于其他分类单元和线索类型。野生捕获的动物和营养位置较高的动物的基线新恐惧症较低,与圈养和营养水平较低的人相比。相比之下,诱发的新恐惧症在整个分类单元中的强度相似,背景类型和测试线索类型,而在上营养级成员和幼年动物中再次较低。尽管诱发的新恐惧症发生在所有治疗类型中,与捕食风险或社会隔离相比,脑部病变引起的新恐惧症更强。我们讨论了这些结果的潜在机制,并强调了文献中的空白。