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- Title
INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN VIGILANCE AMONG WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOGS (CYNOMYS LEUCURUS).
- Authors
HOOGLAND, JOHN L.; HALE, SARAH L.; KIRK, ARIEL D.; SUI, YVONNE D.
- Abstract
Vigilance for predators is omnipresent among species of prey. We report an investigation of vigilance of white-tailed prairie dogs (Sciuridae: Cynomys leucurus) living under natural conditions. Our most important conclusion concerns variation in vigilance within and among uniquely marked adult individuals (n = 53 in 2007, n = 62 in 2008). Within a single day, the percentage of observations when an individual was scanning for predators ranged from 0-100%, with a mean of 24.4%. Over a period of 3 months, some individuals were vigilant for <5% of observations, but others were vigilant for >50% of observations. For 12 of 24 individuals that we monitored for vigilance in consecutive years, levels of vigilance were significantly different between years. Some of the variation within and between individuals might have resulted from differences in vulnerability to predation.
- Subjects
WHITE-tailed prairie dog; PREDATORY animals; ANTIPREDATOR behavior; ANIMAL species; PREDATION; BIOLOGICAL variation
- Publication
Southwestern Naturalist, 2013, Vol 58, Issue 3, p279
- ISSN
0038-4909
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1894/0038-4909-58.3.279