Study
Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus
Lima, Steven L.; Dill, Lawrence M.
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1990
Reviews evidence that animals trade feeding, mating and movement against the risk of being eaten, and sets out a framework in which risk is a currency animals continuously assess rather than an event that occasionally happens to them.
- Studied in
- Animalia
- Sample size
- review across vertebrates and invertebrates
Prey animals adjust habitat use, group size, vigilance, activity timing and feeding rate in response to predation risk, and these adjustments have measurable costs even when no predator ever attacks.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The effect of predators on prey populations runs substantially through changed behaviour rather than through animals killed.
How NatureHQ reads it
The record behind one of this site’s more counter-intuitive points: most of what a predator does to a prey population happens without a single successful attack. It also supports the defence-has-a-cost framing used across these pages, since vigilance is time not spent feeding.
- A 1990 review; the empirical base has grown enormously, though the framework has held and become standard.
- Quantifying the population-level consequence of risk effects remains contested.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Canadian Science PublishingPublished in a Canadian Science Publishing journal.
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.