Prey species often modify their foraging and reproductive behaviors to avoid encounters with predators; yet once they are detected, survival depends on out-running, out-manoeuvring, or fighting off the predator. Though predation attempts involve at least two individuals-namely, a predator and its prey-studies of escape performance typically measure a single trait (e.g. sprint speed) in the prey species only. Here, we develop a theoretical model in which the likelihood of escape is determined by the prey animal's tactics (i.e. path trajectory) and its acceleration, top speed, agility and deceleration relative to the performance capabilities of a predator. The model shows that acceleration, top speed, and agility are all important determinants of escape performance, and because speed and agility are biomechanically related to size, smaller prey with higher agility should force larger predators to run along curved paths that do not allow them to use their superior speeds. Our simulations provide clear predictions for the path and speed a prey animal should choose when escaping from predators of different sizes (thus, biomechanical constraints), and could be used to explore the dynamics between predators and prey.

中文翻译：

---

模拟陆地捕食者-猎物相互作用中的逃生成功

猎物物种经常改变它们的觅食和繁殖行为，以避免与捕食者相遇；然而，一旦它们被发现，生存就取决于奔跑、机动或击退捕食者。尽管捕食尝试涉及至少两个个体——即捕食者及其猎物——逃逸表现的研究通常仅测量猎物物种的单一特征（例如冲刺速度）。在这里，我们开发了一个理论模型，其中逃脱的可能性由猎物动物的策略（即路径轨迹）及其相对于捕食者的表现能力的加速度、最高速度、敏捷性和减速度决定。该模型表明加速度、最高速度和敏捷性都是逃生性能的重要决定因素，因为速度和敏捷性在生物力学上与大小有关，具有更高敏捷性的较小猎物应该迫使较大的捕食者沿着不允许它们使用其优越速度的弯曲路径奔跑。我们的模拟为猎物动物在逃离不同大小的捕食者（因此，生物力学约束）时应该选择的路径和速度提供了清晰的预测，并可用于探索捕食者和猎物之间的动态。