Journal ArticleDOI
Vigilance Behaviour in Grazing African Antelopes
TLDR
Time spent looking varied with position within the group; this effect was strongest in closed habitats, where central animals tended to scan least and feed most, and within species, animals inclosed habitats, those with dense vegetation, tended to spend more time in looking than did animals in the open.Abstract:
African antelope may devote a large proportion of their foraging time to looking around. The factors affecting such vigilance behaviour are examined for grazing antelope, five species being studied in detail. The proportion of time spent looking decreased as species body weight increased. Within species, animals in closed habitats, those with dense vegetation, tended to spend more time in looking than did animals in the open. There was some evidence that vigilance, presumably for predators, was shared by group members, but in one species, impala, vigilance apparently increased with group size and with proximity to neighbours. Time spent looking varied with position within the group; this effect was strongest in closed habitats, where central animals tended to scan least and feed most. Vigilance increased as feeding success decreased, partly due to mutual interference between looking and feeding. The possible social, foraging and predator-detection values of vigilance are discussed. A simple model is introduced to help explain the effects of cover and to facilitate further discussion.read more
Citations
More filters
Book ChapterDOI
Adaptive Herbivore Ecology: Resource allocation : growth, storage and reproduction
N. Owen-Smith,R. N. Owen-Smith +1 more
Book ChapterDOI
Adaptive Herbivore Ecology: Resource competition : exploitation and density dependence
Book ChapterDOI
Resource distribution : patch scales and depletion
TL;DR: Within-patch feeding and between-patch searching were recognized by Arditi and Dacorogna as mentioned in this paper, who recognized that patches may be identified at a diversity of scales by the feeding responses of herbivores to particular forms of heterogeneity in the vegetation.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Observational study of behavior: sampling methods.
TL;DR: Seven major types of sampling for observational studies of social behavior have been found in the literature and the major strengths and weaknesses of each method are pointed out.
Journal ArticleDOI
Geometry for the selfish herd.
TL;DR: An antithesis to the view that gregarious behaviour is evolved through benefits to the population or species is presented, and simply defined models are used to show that even in non-gregarious species selection is likely to favour individuals who stay close to others.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Social Organisation of Antelope in Relation To Their Ecology
TL;DR: The paper describes different feeding styles among antelope, in terms of selection of food items and coverage of home ranges, and argues that these feeding styles bear a relationship to maximum group size of feeding animals through the influence of dispersion ofFood items upon group cohesion.
Book
The Ethology of Predation
TL;DR: This chapter discusses hunting for Prey, the Diversity of Hunting Methods, and the Motivation Underlying Feeding Responses of Predator-Prey Interactions.
Related Papers (5)
Predator vigilance and group size in mammals and birds: a critical review of the empirical evidence
Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus
Steven L. Lima,Lawrence M. Dill +1 more