The assessment of threat is critical to an animal's survival. Prey species exhibit a variety of behavioral responses to the threat of predation. These responses rely on sensory cues to evaluate the risk of predation and enable prey to minimize that risk.

A visual fix on a predator will provide a more accurate representation of the risk of predation than smelling freshly deposited scent or hearing a predator call. But for prey that exist in environments where visual cues are not often obtained before the predator is within the distance an animal would normally take flight, they must rely heavily on aural and olfactory cues and make decisions with less information at their disposal. This hypothesis was tested for the parma wallaby (Macropus parma) and the red-necked pademelon (Thylogale thetis). EthoVision was used to assess the behavioral responses of these two species.

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