Antipredator Benefits from Heterospecifics

Animals can use other prey species to learn about the presence of predators and reduce their risk of predation. Species living in the same area can eavesdrop on other species’ alarm signals or cues. Animals may also actively join other species to mob predators or may associate with other species in mixed-species groups in which both competition and/or individual predation risk may be lower than in same-sized single-species groups. Such mutualistic interactions reach a climax in sets of species that are usually or always found together, in some cases being rapidly consumed by predators in the absence of the other species.