Prey movement shapes the acquisition of predator expertise in a virtual bi-trophic system

Abstract

The acquisition of expertise is crucial for predators to be successful hunters. To achieve this, predators must hone their skills and gain knowledge through repeated and extensive practice. On the other hand, prey may hinder the acquisition of predator expertise by employing antipredator tactics to evade detection and pursuit. However, empirical evidence on how predators acquire expertise through repeated encounters with their prey remains limited, largely due to the challenges of monitoring direct interactions in the wild. Here, we use a virtual predator-prey system (the game Dead by Daylight) to investigate how experience shapes individual and population hunting success in human predators across repeated interactions with their prey. We show that predators optimized prey consumption as they gained experience, indicating that they acquired expertise through extensive practice. At the population-level, we found that faster prey impaired the acquisition of expertise by reducing hunting success. Prey speed was also an important mediator of this relationship at the individual level, driving differences among predators in the acquisition of expertise. Our study outlines how prey antipredator behaviour can mediate the acquisition of expertise in predator populations.