The allometry of fear: interspecific relationships between body size and response to predation risk

Abstract

Body size is associated with fundamental biological processes such as metabolism, movement, and the rate of reproduction and evolution. Although allometric principles should also influence the range of potential behavioral responses for a given organism, evidence for such large‐scale and cross‐taxon relationships is lacking. If they exist, scaling‐related changes in behavior should be prominent in predator‐prey interactions: body size affects the likelihood of attack and the costs of predator avoidance. We take a interspecific perspective on a traditionally intraspecific topic by using a 142‐species data set containing organisms ranging over seven degrees of magnitude in body size to analyze the relationship between mean response to predation risk and both prey size and the predator : prey size ratio. We found a weak but significant relationship between two metrics of prey size (mean species‐level prey mass and mean species‐level predator : prey size ratio) and two of the five prey response variables: risk‐induced changes in prey habitat use and prey fecundity were significantly correlated with prey body size and the predator : prey ratio. Risk‐induced reductions in prey activity were positively correlated with prey mass. In contrast, there was no correlation between prey mass or the predator : prey size ratio and risk‐induced changes in either prey growth and survival. We also document considerable variation in response to predation risk among taxa, highlighting that many additional factors contribute to the effects of predation risk on prey behavior, growth, fecundity, and survival. The weak but significant large‐scale relationships we documented in our work suggest that allometric relationships may play a subtle role in structuring some of a prey organism's response to predation risk.