  We study the generalised rock-paper-scissors game with five species whose
organisms face local epidemic outbreaks. As an evolutionary behavioural
survival strategy, organisms of one out of the species move in the direction
with more enemies of their enemies to benefit from protection against
selection. We consider that each organism scans the environment, performing
social distancing instead of agglomerating when perceiving that the density of
sick organisms is higher than a tolerable threshold. Running stochastic
simulations, we study the interference of the adaptive movement survival
strategy in spatial pattern formation, calculating the characteristic length
scale of the typical spatial domains inhabited by organisms of each species. We
compute how social distancing trigger impacts the chances of an individual
being killed in the cyclic game and contaminated by the disease. The outcomes
show that the species predominates in the cyclic game because of the organisms'
local adaptation. The territory occupied by the species grows with the
proportion of individuals learning to trigger the social distancing tactic. We
also show that organisms that perceive large distances more properly execute
the adaptive strategy, promptly triggering the social distancing tactic and
choosing the correct direction to move. Our findings may contribute to
understanding the role of adaptive behaviour when environmental changes
threaten biodiversity.
