ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2018
Torpor reduces predation risk by compensating for the energetic cost of antipredator foraging behaviours.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Indirect effects of higher mean air temperature related to climate change on major life-history traits in a pulsed-resource consumer.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Torpor expression and patterns in 3 sympatric rodents from Inner Mongolia.Current zoology · 2025Article
- The cold truth: torpor as a confound in studies of caloric restriction.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2025Review
- Seasonal Fattening Among Bat Populations Globally: Storing Energy for Survival in a Changing World.Ecology letters · 2025Review
- Mechanosensation of the heart and gut elicits hypometabolism and vigilance in mice.Nature metabolism · 2025Article
- Torpor use in the wild by one of the world's largest bats.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Predation can shape the cascade interplay between heterothermy, exploration and maintenance metabolism under high food availability.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- When the tap runs dry: the physiological effects of acute experimental dehydration in Peromyscus eremicus.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- When the tap runs dry: The physiological effects of acute experimental dehydration inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Indirect Human Influences in Fear Landscapes: Varying Effects of Moonlight on Small Mammal Activity along Man-Made Gradients of Vegetation Structure.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Why hibernate? Predator avoidance in the edible dormouse.Mammal research · 2023Review
- Survivable hypothermia or torpor in a wild-living rat: rare insights broaden our understanding of endothermic physiology.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2022Article
- Heterothermy as a mechanism to offset energetic costs of environmental and homeostatic perturbations.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Challenging a "Cushy" Life: Potential Roles of Thermogenesis and Adipose Tissue Adaptations in Delayed Aging of Ames and Snell Dwarf Mice.Metabolites · 2020Review
- Responding to the weather: energy budgeting by a small mammal in the wild.Current zoology · 2020Article
- Flexibility Is Costly: Hidden Physiological Damage From Seasonal Phenotypic Transitions in Heterothermic Species.Frontiers in physiology · 2020Article
- Thermal energetics and behaviour of a small, insectivorous marsupial in response to the interacting risks of starvation and predation.Oecologia · 2019Article
- Nocturnal torpor by superb fairy-wrens: a key mechanism for reducing winter daily energy expenditure.Biology letters · 2019Article
- Torpor reduces predation risk by compensating for the energetic cost of antipredator foraging behaviours.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Torpor use in response to predation risk in a small, free-living bird.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Foraging activity is needed for energy intake but increases the risk of predation, and antipredator behavioural responses, such as reduced activity, generally reduce energy intake. Hence, the mortality and indirect effects of predation risk are dependent on the energy requirements of prey. Torpor, a controlled reduction in resting metabolism and body temperature, is a common energy-saving mechanism of small mammals that enhances their resistance to starvation. Here we test the hypothesis that torpor could also reduce predation risk by compensating for the energetic cost of antipredator behaviours. We measured the foraging behaviour and body temperature of house mice in response to manipulation of perceived predation risk by adjusting levels of ground cover and starvation risk by 24 h food withdrawal every third day. We found that a voluntary reduction in daily food intake in response to lower cover (high predation risk) was matched by the extent of a daily reduction in body temperature. Our study provides the first experimental evidence of a close link between energy-saving torpor responses to starvation risk and behavioural responses to perceived predation risk. By reducing the risk of starvation, torpor can facilitate stronger antipredator behaviours. These results highlight the interplay between the capacity for reducing metabolic energy expenditure, optimal decisions about foraging behaviour and the life-history ecology of prey.
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