A new paper by University of Notre Dame biologist Gary Belovsky appearing in the prestigious journal Ecology Letters suggests that predator-prey relationships are much more complex than originally thought.
Belovsky conducted an experiment to examine how behavioral responses of grasshoppers to avian predators affected grasshopper survival and reproduction at different grasshopper population densities. The research demonstrated that grasshopper behavior changed with the threat of predators, reducing grasshopper feeding, and this was apparent at all grasshopper densities.