Data from: Strategic predatory pursuit of the stealthy, highly maneuverable, slow flying bat Corynorhinus townsendii

A predator's capacity to catch prey depends on its ability to navigate its environment in response to prey movements or escape behavior. In predator-prey interactions that involve an active chase, pursuit behavior can be studied as the collection of rules that dictate how a predator should steer to capture prey. It remains unclear how variable this behavior is within and across species since most studies have detailed the pursuit behavior of high-speed, open-area foragers. In this study, we analyze the pursuit behavior in 44 successful captures by Corynorhinus townsendii, Townsend's big-eared bat (n = 4). This species forages close to vegetation using slow and highly maneuverable flight, which contrasts with the locomotor capabilities and feeding ecologies of other taxa studied to date. Our results indicate that this species relies on an initial stealthy approach, which is generally sufficient to capture prey (32 out of 44 trials). In cases where the initial approach is not sufficient to perform a capture attempt (12 out of 44 trials), C. townsendii continues its pursuit by reacting to prey movements in a manner best modeled with a combination of pure pursuit, or following prey directly, and proportional navigation, or moving to an interception point.

捕食者的猎食效能，取决于其针对猎物移动或逃逸行为完成环境导航的能力。在涉及主动追击的捕食者-猎物互动中，追击行为可被视为一系列指导捕食者操控自身以捕获猎物的行为规则的集合。由于绝大多数现有研究仅详细阐述了高速开阔觅食类群的追击行为，因此该行为在物种内部及跨物种间的变异程度仍不明确。本研究分析了44次成功捕猎事件中的追击行为，研究对象为汤森大耳蝠（Corynorhinus townsendii，样本量n=4）。该物种依靠缓慢且高机动性的飞行在植被近旁觅食，这与迄今已研究的其他类群的运动能力及摄食生态形成鲜明反差。我们的研究结果显示，该物种依赖初始的隐秘接近策略，该策略通常足以捕获猎物（44次试次中32次成功）。在初始接近不足以发起捕获尝试的场景（44次试次中12次）下，汤森大耳蝠（C. townsendii）会通过响应猎物移动继续追击，其行为模式最优可通过结合纯追踪（pure pursuit，即直接跟随猎物）与比例导航（proportional navigation，即移动至拦截点）进行建模。