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School of Psychology Seminar Programme
| Description | Candy Rowe (Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Newcastle University): 'Aposematic prey and their mimics: survival of the fattest?' |
| Presenter | School of Psychology |
| Type | Seminar |
| Open to | All staff and students |
| |
| Date | Friday, 10 February 2012 |
| Time |
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM |
| |
| Where | Old Library, School of Psychology |
| Contact | Prof Stephen Reicher |
| Email | sdr@st-andrews.ac.uk |
| |
| More info | Abstract For more than 100 years, evolutionary biologists have been trying to understand the benefits to aposematism and mimicry. Studies have focussed on how quickly naive predators learn to avoid prey containing different amounts of toxin, and how effective their conspicuous coloration is as a warning signal. However, aposematic prey also contain nutrients, which cause predators to continue to eat them even when they know that they contain toxins. In this talk, I will explore the role of nutrients in predators' decisions to eat aposematic prey, and the implications that this has for current theories of mimicry. |
