ArticleNature2018
Biomechanics of predator-prey arms race in lion, zebra, cheetah and impala.
Article in Nature, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed.
- Coevolutionary attack and avoidance strategies in predators and grouping prey.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Review
- Balancing Food, Heat and Predation Risk: Seasonal and Diel Movement Strategies of African Herbivores.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Unlocking fast robotic locomotor propulsion through dynamic spine-leg synergy.Science advances · 2026Article
- Convergent carnivores or divergent dasyurids? Inferring predation and locomotor strategies of extant and extinct carnivorous marsupials from locomotor shape.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Prey capture strategies relate to prey position in the scale-eating cichlid Perissodus microlepis.Biology open · 2026Article
- A reinforcement learning-enhanced discrete zebra optimization algorithm for solving the traveling salesman problem.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Warming temperatures increase close encounters between two top predator species via changes in spatial behaviour.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Faster fowl fall frequently: speed and force regulation during turning maneuvers by guinea fowl on high and low friction terrains.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- The hunter or the hunted? Inferring benthic meso-predator behavior from swim velocity data.PeerJ · 2026Article
- Behavioural response of prey to repeated attacks by non-coordinating predators.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Muscle forces and the demands of turning while walking.Biology open · 2025Article
- Intraguild competition mediates human avoidance in an endangered African large carnivore.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Partner dependency alters patterns of coevolutionary selection in mutualisms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Zoophytophagous predator sex pheromone and visual cues of opposing reflectance spectra lure predator and invasive prey.Journal of advanced research · 2025Article
- Article
- A simple robot suggests trunk rotation is essential for emergence of inside leading limb during quadruped galloping turns.Frontiers in neurorobotics · 2025Article
- Frictional adhesion of geckos predicts maximum running performance in nature.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Beyond power limits: the kinetic energy capacity of skeletal muscle.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Review
- Forward and backward control of an ultrafast millimeter-scale microrobot via vibration mode transition.Science advances · 2024Article
- Optimal Gearing of Musculoskeletal Systems.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The fastest and most manoeuvrable terrestrial animals are found in savannah habitats, where predators chase and capture running prey. Hunt outcome and success rate are critical to survival, so both predator and prey should evolve to be faster and/or more manoeuvrable. Here we compare locomotor characteristics in two pursuit predator-prey pairs, lion-zebra and cheetah-impala, in their natural savannah habitat in Botswana. We show that although cheetahs and impalas were universally more athletic than lions and zebras in terms of speed, acceleration and turning, within each predator-prey pair, the predators had 20% higher muscle fibre power than prey, 37% greater acceleration and 72% greater deceleration capacity than their prey. We simulated hunt dynamics with these data and showed that hunts at lower speeds enable prey to use their maximum manoeuvring capacity and favour prey survival, and that the predator needs to be more athletic than its prey to sustain a viable success rate.
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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.