• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2008

Sensing the approach of a predator is critical to the survival of prey, especially when the prey has no choice but to escape at a precisely timed moment. Escape behavior has been approached from both proximate and ultimate perspectives. On the proximate level, empirical research about electrophysiological mechanisms for detecting predators has focused on vision, an important modality that helps prey to sense approaching danger. Studies of looming-sensitive neurons in locusts are a good example of how the selective sensitivity of nervous systems towards specific targets, especially approaching objects, has been understood and realistically modeled in software and robotic systems. On the ultimate level, general optimality models have provided an evolutionary framework by considering costs and benefits of visually elicited escape responses. A recent paper showed how neural network models can be used to understand the evolution of visually mediated antipredatory behaviors. We discuss this new trend towards integration of these relatively disparate approaches, the proximate and the ultimate perspectives, for understanding of the evolution of behavior of predators and prey. Focusing on one of the best-studied escape pathway models, the Orthopteran LGMD/DCMD pathway, we discuss how ultimate-level optimality modeling can be integrated with proximate-level studies of escape behaviors in animals.