The distance from an approaching threat at which animals initiate flight - flight-initiation distance （FID） -- is a sensitive metric of variation in risk, but the effects on FID associated with the risk of possessin...The distance from an approaching threat at which animals initiate flight - flight-initiation distance （FID） -- is a sensitive metric of variation in risk, but the effects on FID associated with the risk of possessing highly detectable external coloration are unknown. We tested whether variation in the degree of plumage vividness in birds explained variation in flight-initiation distance. After controlling for body mass, the distance at which the experimental approach began, and phylogenetic relatedness, plumage vividness was not a predictor of FID. Contrary to the expectation that vividness affects risk, and therefore risk assess- ment, these results suggest that birds do not compensate for greater visual conspicuousness by fleeing sooner from approaching threats [Current Zoology 61 （4）： 773-780, 2015].展开更多
基金We thank Kate Rose for help managing data, the survey participants for judging vividness, C. East- wood for his intellectual contributions, and Bill Cooper and one anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on a previous version of this MS. NMH was supported by the UC Regents Special Fellowship. JPD was supported by a National Science Foundation （NSF） Graduate Research Fellowship and a fellowship from the UCLA Graduate Division during the course of this study. DTB is supported by NSF-DEB-1119660.
文摘The distance from an approaching threat at which animals initiate flight - flight-initiation distance （FID） -- is a sensitive metric of variation in risk, but the effects on FID associated with the risk of possessing highly detectable external coloration are unknown. We tested whether variation in the degree of plumage vividness in birds explained variation in flight-initiation distance. After controlling for body mass, the distance at which the experimental approach began, and phylogenetic relatedness, plumage vividness was not a predictor of FID. Contrary to the expectation that vividness affects risk, and therefore risk assess- ment, these results suggest that birds do not compensate for greater visual conspicuousness by fleeing sooner from approaching threats [Current Zoology 61 （4）： 773-780, 2015].
