Effects of predation risk on group size, vigilance, and foraging behavior in an African ungulate community

Creel, Scott; Schuette, Paul; Christianson, David

doi:10.1093/beheco/aru050

Cited by 256 publications

(258 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Thus, predation risk affected group size in a way consistent with theoretical predictions that there is reduced individual risk in larger groups (Cresswell and Quinn 2011, Sorato et al 2012, Creel et al 2014), but the direct effects of predation risk on foraging success were weak for early summer fish and non-significant for late summer fish. Predation risk was, however, positively associated with group size during both sampling periodslarger groups formed in habitats of high risk.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Hintz

Lonzarich

2018

Ecosphere

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Grouping is an evolutionary strategy that allows individuals to optimize foraging success in habitats of varying quality and when under the risk of predation, but group foraging can lead to competition between group members. The effects of group size, habitat, predation, and competition on foraging success also can change as animals grow. Our study explored how these concurrent factors influenced the foraging success of group members at two different life stages. In a wild population of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), we first tested four hypotheses concerning the effects of group size on foraging success. We then analyzed our field observations with structural equation modeling to test causal relationships between group size, habitat, predation risk, competition, and the foraging success of individuals during two periods of development. We found support for the hypothesis that the relationship between group size and foraging success was parabolic during both study periods, revealing an optimal range of group sizes that maximized individual foraging success, which was conserved as fish aged. Predation risk had a positive effect on group size, particularly for older fish, and distance to cover and water depth were indicators of risk for both age groups. As group size increased, so did competition, but only for young fish; competition only had a weak positive effect on foraging success for older fish. Our results reveal that the relative direct effects of predation risk and competition on foraging success were weak compared with the direct effect of group size. Our study provides new insights and theoretical implications for understanding how selective forces-that is, group size, predation risk, competition, habitat, and ontogeny-act concurrently to affect foraging success in wild populations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Hintz

Lonzarich

2018

Ecosphere

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“…Standing, rather than eating, could help elephants focus more on the sound, and thereby locate its source and determine if they are in a potentially threatening situation. African ungulates typically spend less time foraging when predators are nearby, with a negative relationship between foraging and vigilance [Creel et al, 2014]. The present study further confirms that elephants respond to potentially threatening stimuli, such as bee buzzing and banging on pots/pans, with distress, vigilance, and avoidance behaviors.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Habituation to Auditory Stimuli by Captive African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)

Goodyear¹,

Schulte²

2015

AB&C

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“…Experimental data from a broad range of taxa show that there are at least four mutual benefits that can result from aggregation behaviour: (i) decreased chance of predation (Colbert et al, 2010;Creel et al, 2014;Unglaub et al, 2013), (ii) increased feeding efficiency (Horst, 1995;Jackson et al, 2008;Hsia and Wood-Gush, 1982;Lazarus, 1979), (iii) increased locomotion efficiency (Ebensperger and Bozinovic, 2000;Fish, 1995;Voelkl et al, 2015) and (iv) decreased energy spent on thermoregulation (Gilbert et al, 2008(Gilbert et al, , 2010Nunez-Villegas et al, 2014;Withers and Jarvis, 1980). However, aggregation behaviour may have more than one function within a single species (Lazarus, 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronous activity lowers the energetic cost of nest escape for sea turtle hatchlings

Rusli

Booth

Joseph

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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A potential advantage of group movement in animals is increased locomotion efficiency. This implies a reduced energetic cost for individuals that occur in larger groups such as herds, flocks and schools. When chelonian hatchlings hatch in the underground nest with finite energy for their post-hatching dispersal phase, they face the challenge of minimizing energetic expenditure while escaping the nest. The term 'social facilitation' has been used to describe the combined digging effort of sea turtle hatchlings during nest escape. Given that in a normal clutch, a substantial part of the energy reserve within the residual yolk is used by hatchlings in the digging out process, a decreased cohort size may reduce the energy reserve available to cross the beach and sustain the initial swimming frenzy. This hypothesis was experimentally tested by varying cohort size in hatchling green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and measuring energy expenditure during the nest escape process using open-flow respirometry. The energetic cost of escaping through 40 cm of sand was calculated to vary between 4.4 and 28.3 kJ per individual, the cost decreasing as the number of individuals in the cohort increased. This represents 11-68% of the energy contained in a hatchling's residual yolk at hatching. The reduced energetic cost associated with large cohorts resulted from both a lower metabolic rate per individual and a shortened nest escape time. We conclude that synchronous digging activity of many hatchlings during nest escape evolved not only to facilitate rapid nest emergence but also to reduce the energetic cost to individuals.

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Effects of predation risk on group size, vigilance, and foraging behavior in an African ungulate community

Cited by 256 publications

References 52 publications

Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Habituation to Auditory Stimuli by Captive African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)

Synchronous activity lowers the energetic cost of nest escape for sea turtle hatchlings

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