Читать книгу The Behavior of Animals - Группа авторов - Страница 45

Summertime in a forest, evening is falling, twilight—a toad Bufo bufo sits in front of its shelter. Suddenly, a moving milliped shows up. The toad orients its head and body toward it, watchfully creeps up, fixates it binocularly, and snaps. In the catching sequence, the releasing system of each behavioral component decides “what is it?” The releasing systems differ in determining “where is it?” and, in case of prey, “how can it be caught?”, e.g., by stalking or pouncing, tongue-flipping, or jaw-grasping. Key factors of these releasing systems involve prey-selective neurons in the midbrain optic tectum. How was this discovered?