Sex-selective predation and predator-prey dynamics
Given that many animals are sexually dimorphic and many predators hunt their prey based on its size, conspicuousness or behaviour, sex-selective predation should be widespread. In an article recently published in PloS ONE, David Boukal, Luděk Berec and Vlastimil Křivan from the Department of Theoretical Ecology highlight that this phenomenon is surprisingly poorly covered in the research on population dynamics.
Given that many animals are sexually dimorphic and many predators hunt their prey based on its size, conspicuousness or behaviour, sex-selective predation should be widespread. In an article recently published in PloS ONE, David Boukal, Luděk Berec and Vlastimil Křivan from the Department of Theoretical Ecology highlight that this phenomenon is surprisingly poorly covered in the research on population dynamics. They combine a modelling approach with an extensive survey of known data to show that in most prey, male-biased predation will have a stabilizing effect on the predator-prey dynamics (that is, such predation may lead to a predator-prey equilibrium), while female-biased predation will usually be destabilizing and may lead to extinction of the populations. This ecological viewpoint might provide an alternative or supplementary explanation, other than sexual selection, as to why male-biased predation prevails in nature.
Boukal, D. S., Berec, L., Krivan, V. 2008. Does sex-selective predation stabilize or destabilize predator-prey dynamics? PloS ONE 3(7): e2687
