Individual foraging specialization and success change with experience in a virtual predator-prey system

The capacity of predators to match their tactic to their prey and to optimize their skills at implementing a given tactic are expected to drive the outcome of predator-prey interactions. Hence, successive interactions of predators with their prey may result in increased flexibility in tactic use or in individual foraging specialization. Yet, there are limited empirical assessments showing links between past experience, foraging specialization, and hunting success at the individual level, due to the challenges of monitoring direct interactions in the wild. Here, we used a virtual predator-prey system (the game Dead by Daylight) to investigate how individual predator foraging specialization and success developed across repeated interactions with their prey. We found that 68% of predators became either increasingly specialized by always moving at a fast pace, or flexible by transitioning between slow and fast speeds. The predators’ strategies were partially matched to their prey’s speed, suggesting that changes in hunting behaviour were driven by repeated encounters with their prey. Flexible and specialist foragers achieved similar success overall. Hence, our findings suggest that experience may promote behavioural diversification in predator-prey systems.