SEB Marseille 2008 - Predator/Prey Interactions
Session organised by: Prof. Vincent Bels (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle)
In all animals, predatory and anti-predatory activities are complex behaviours to collect sensory informations and to produce motor activities resulting in displacements of one or several of these structures of the body. A large number of organisms are used for studying the sensory-motor processing involved in the motor control of a series of movements that permit to capture food, and/or to escape, and/or defend from predators. The integration of sensory inputs and motor outputs can be viewed as a coherent 'gestalt' essential to the behaviours of the predators and the preys. The integration of these sensory informations and motor responses are the functional bases for building the adaptive strategies in a determined environment. For example, for successful capture of living preys, locomotion and trophic systems must be coordinated. The aim of this symposium is to show the evolutionary functional bases of predator-prey relationships by a series of examples showing the complexity of this integration between sensory inputs and motor responses. This integration should be showed by completely different conceptual and methodological approaches involving, ethology, ecology, functional morphology, neurobiology, etc. Also numerous models should be investigated in a comparative and phylogenetic framework.
Thursday 10th July
10:45 Introduction by Prof. Vincent Bels (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle)
11:00 Dr Alice C. Gibb (Northern Arizona University)
The ramifications of life history for escape performance and survivability in larval fishes: A case study from an altered habitat, the Colorado River, USA [A4.2]
11:30 Mr Paolo Domenici (CNR-IAMC Oristano Italy)
Temporal and directional patterns in escape responses [A4.3]
12:00 Dr Kiisa Nishikawa (Northern Arizona University)
Sensory modulation of prey capture in frogs: alternative strategies, biomechanical trade-offs, and sensory hierarchies [A4.4]
12:30 Dr B Young (Washburn University)
Why spitting cobras oscillate their heads and puff adders don’t: functional integration of the head and neck in snakes [A4.5]
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Mr Stéphane Montuelle (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle)
Prey-prehension modes in Gerrhosaurus major: integration of the locomotor apparatus and trophic system [A4.6]
14:25 Miss Emmanuelle Pouydebat (USTV, France)
Phylogenetic reconstructions of food catching among primates [A4.7]
14:50 Dr Sylvain Pincebourde (University of South Carolina, Dept of Biological Sciences)
Interaction between underwater and aerial body temperatures in influencing a top predator feeding rate in the intertidal [A4.8]
15:15 Refreshment Break
15:45 Mr Nikolay Natchev (University Vienna)
Kinematic analysis of prey capture, prey transport and swallowing in the Common Musk Turtle Sternotherus odoratus (Chelonia, Kinosternidae) [A4.9]
16:10 Mr Egon Heiss (University of Vienna)
On the biochemical and bizarre mechanical defensive strategies of the salamandrid Pleurodeles waltl [A4.10]
16:30 Miss Ana Marçalo (INRB/IPIMAR-Olhão)
Effect of simulated purse seine fishing on acclimated sardines and post-fishing interactions with predators [A4.11]
