ArticleScientific reports2015
Brain size as a driver of avian escape strategy.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global meta-analysis reveals urban-associated behavioural differences among wild populations.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Increased tolerance to humans among disturbed wildlife.Nature communications · 2015Pooled it
- Light tuned to the avian eye elicits early detection and escape from an approaching aircraft.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- Herons in Aquafarms Are More Fearful of Humans.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Bird tolerance to humans in open tropical ecosystems.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Using relative brain size as predictor variable: Serious pitfalls and solutions.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Face mask-wear did not affect large-scale patterns in escape and alertness of urban and rural birds during the COVID-19 pandemic.The Science of the total environment · 2021Article
- Selection on individuals of introduced species starts before the actual introduction.Evolutionary applications · 2021Article
- Brain mass explains prey size selection better than beak, gizzard and body size in a benthivorous duck species.PloS one · 2021Article
- Predation risk in relation to brain size in alternative prey of pygmy owls varies depending on the abundance of main prey.PloS one · 2020Article
- Adjusting risk-taking to the annual cycle of long-distance migratory birds.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Brain modularity across the theropod-bird transition: testing the influence of flight on neuroanatomical variation.Journal of anatomy · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
After detecting an approaching predator, animals make a decision when to flee. Prey will initiate flight soon after detecting a predator so as to minimize attentional costs related to on-going monitoring of the whereabouts of the predator. Such costs may compete with foraging and other maintenance activities and hence be larger than the costs of immediate flight. The drivers of interspecific variation in escape strategy are poorly known. Here we investigated the morphological, life history and natural history traits that correlate with variation in avian escape strategy across a sample of 96 species of birds. Brain mass, body size, habitat structure and group size were the main predictors of escape strategy. The direction of the effect of these traits was consistent with selection for a reduction of monitoring costs. Therefore, attentional costs depend on relative brain size, which determines the ability to monitor the whereabouts of potential predators and the difficulty of this task as reflected by habitat and social complexity. Thus brain size, and the cognitive functions associated with it, constitute a general framework for explaining the effects of body size, habitat structure and sociality identified as determinants of avian escape strategy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.