The Sensory Ecology of Foraging for Animal Prey

Abstract

Many prosimians eat animal food, including arthropods and small vertebrates. This chapter explores the clues prosimians rely on to detect and identify animal prey, and their sensory adaptations for predation. Available observational and experimental datasets suggest that acoustic and visual (especially motion) cues, as well as olfactory and tactile ones, to a lesser degree, play a role. Different sensory channels are likely to operate in prey perception over different distances. It appears that acoustic cues first draw the animal’s attention to prey at a distance, while visual cues are used for precise localization at closer range, and olfactory cues operate at very close range to allow the animal to abandon attacks on unpalatable arthropods. Future work should address the role of sensory ecology in shaping prey selection and resource partitioning in prosimians.