Steering clear of the confusion effect: aerial predators target fixed points in dense prey aggregations
Brighton, C. H.; Kloepper, L. N.; Larkman, L.; Zusi, L.; McGowan, K.; Taylor, G. K.
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Collective behaviours are widely assumed to confuse predators, but empirical support for a confusion effect is often lacking, and its importance must depend on the predators targeting mechanism. Here we show that raptors steer attacks on swarming bats by turning towards a fixed point in the swarm, rather than by using closed-loop pursuit of an individual. Any prey that the predator is on a collision course with will appear on a constant bearing, so target selection emerges naturally from the geometry of a collision. Our results show how predators can simplify the demands on their sensory system by decoupling steering from targeting when grabbing prey from a dense swarm. We anticipate that the same tactic will be used against flocks and schools across a wide range of taxa, in which case a confusion effect is paradoxically more likely to occur in attacks on sparse groups, for which steering and targeting cannot be decoupled.
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