Editing Anti-predator adaptation (section)

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{{short description |Defensive feature of prey for selective advantage}}
[[File:Hagfish Slime Predator Deterrence.jpg |thumb |right |upright=2 |Anti-predator adaptation in action: the [[Dalatias licha|kitefin shark]] (a–c) and the [[Polyprion americanus|Atlantic wreckfish]] (d–f) attempt to prey on [[hagfish]]es. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths. Choking, the predators release the hagfishes and gag in an attempt to remove slime from their mouths and gill chambers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zintzen |first1=Vincent |last2=Roberts |first2=Clive D. |last3=Anderson |first3=Marti J. |author-link3=Marti Anderson (statistician) |last4=Stewart |first4=Andrew L. |last5=Struthers |first5=Carl D. |last6=Harvey |first6=Euan S. |title=Hagfish Slime as a Defense Mechanism against Gill-breathing Predators |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=1 |page=2011 |doi=10.1038/srep00131 |year=2011 |bibcode=2011NatSR...1..131Z |pmid=22355648 |pmc=3216612}}</ref>]]

'''Anti-predator adaptations''' are mechanisms developed through [[evolution]] that assist [[Predation|prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators]]. Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle, namely by avoiding detection, warding off attack, fighting back, or escaping when caught.

The first line of defence consists in avoiding detection, through mechanisms such as [[camouflage]], [[Masquerade (biology)|masquerade]], [[apostatic selection]], living underground, or [[nocturnal]]ity.

Alternatively, prey animals may ward off attack, whether by advertising the presence of strong defences in [[aposematism]], by [[mimicry|mimicking]] animals which do possess such defences, by [[deimatic behaviour|startling]] the attacker, by [[signalling theory|signalling to the predator]] that pursuit is not worthwhile, by [[distraction display|distraction]], by using defensive structures such as spines, and by [[social animal|living in a group]]. Members of groups are at [[selfish herd theory|reduced risk of predation]], despite the increased conspicuousness of a group, through improved vigilance, predator confusion, and the likelihood that the predator will attack some other individual.