Project description
A closer look at predation and adaptation
What compels the evolution of cognitive abilities in the face of environmental challenges? Predation is often cited as a driving force behind cognitive evolution, with the ability to learn and adapt playing a pivotal role in an animal’s survival. Yet, the impact of environmental predation risk on prey cognition remains a mystery. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the INVASIVE_ARMS_RACE project will explore the picturesque island of Ibiza. Here, invasive alien snakes have disrupted the equilibrium, altering predation dynamics for the endemic lizards. The research aims to unravel how predation pressure shapes the cognition of these prey, investigating cognitive variations within and between populations, and the uncharted territory of the learning speed versus accuracy trade-off.
Objective
Cognition is often assumed to be beneficial, as it allows individuals to adjust to all kind of environmental challenges. However, which exact environmental challenges drive the evolution of animal cognition remains an open question. Predation is often raised as an important driver of cognitive evolution, because animals that can improve their antipredator behaviour through learning may survive better, especially in dangerous environments. How environmental predation risk influences prey cognition is, however, only scarcely studied, with conflicting results. Here, I plan to make use of an unique opportunity to investigate the role of predation in cognitive evolution. I will examine how changes in predation pressure, caused by an invasion of alien snakes into the island of Ibiza, affect the cognition of endemic lizards. I will test how predation risk affects cognitive variation among and within populations of prey, and specifically the trade-off between learning speed versus accuracy (i.e. cognitive style), an understudied aspect of cognition in this context. Another gap in our knowledge is how exactly cognitive abilities help individuals to avoid being predated, and hence as a second goal I will test whether individual's cognitive performance and style relate to their ability to recognize and respond to predators. Finally, one aspect that has rarely been taken into consideration in the past, is how the cognitive abilities of the predator itself affect prey cognition and vice versa. As a final goal, I will test the exciting unexplored hypothesis of a cognitive arms race between predator and prey. In addition, this project will also integrate neuroscience with cognitive ecology, and delve deeper into the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying cognitive changes in prey and predator.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethologybiological interactions
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
08193 Bellaterra
Spain