Abstract
Predators and prey engage into a space race where predators seek to select areas with high prey availability while prey try to avoid areas with a high probability of encountering a predator. Predators and prey continuously make choices that can alter the outcome of this space race. For example, by using different locations in the landscape, they can alter the probability of an encounter, the probabilities of detection or the probability of success of an attack. Many empirical studies show the importance of habitat in these choices. On the other hand, little is known about avoidance by prey or predator search strategies that would be unrelated to habitat. The space race, however, does not fully summarize the interaction between predators and prey, which also depends on many non-spatial behaviors. The vigilance and grouping behaviour of prey are relatively common defenses, and there are many examples where prey become active at another time of day to escape their predator. However, it is still unclear how those behaviors interact with the spatial dimension of the prey-predator game. In this thesis, I will try to fill these gaps. In the first chapter, I propose a theoretical model showing the importance of accounting for spatial behaviors when studying the classical interaction between vigilance and group size in prey. In the second chapter, I present a mechanism of predator avoidance by prey, relying on the spatial and temporal anchors of predators and independent on the habitat. Finally, in the last chapter, I develop a patch selection model to predict how past information should be used to determine movement. This model emphasize the importance of movement unpredictability in the predator-prey game. These different works are part of a behavioral ecology of the landscape and aim to integrate behavioral mechanisms in the study of ecological dynamics at the landscape scale.