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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on August 26, 2008
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arn110
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Vigilance and its complex synchrony in the red-necked pademelon, Thylogale thetis

Olivier Paysa,b, Anne-Laure Dubota, Peter J. Jarmanc, Patrice Loiseld and Anne W. Goldizenb

a Laboratoire Paysages & Biodiversité, Université d'Angers, UFR Sciences, Campus Belle Beille, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, France b School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Queensland 4072, Australia c UMR 729, INRA/ENSAM, ASB, 2 Place Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France d Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia

Address correspondence to O. Pays. E-mail: olivier.pays{at}univ-angers.fr.


  Abstract

Several adaptive functions, including gaining information from other group members and detecting predators, are generally ascribed to vigilance in groups of animals subject to predation. Most studies of the effects of neighbors on vigilance have focused on individual vigilance. We investigated the effects of neighbors on vigilance in wild red-necked pademelons Thylogale thetis foraging at night in nonpersistent aggregations in a clearing in rain forest. Neither the total number of pademelons in the clearing nor the numbers at various distances around focal individuals affected the individual vigilance of focal animals. However, focal animals’ individual vigilance did change with the distance to their nearest neighbor and also with distance to cover. Pairs of individuals closer than 10 m apart tended to synchronize their bouts of individual vigilance and foraging. The degree of synchrony within pairs increased with both distance to cover and the total number of pademelons foraging in the area and decreased with increasing distance to the pair's nearest neighbor but did not vary with the distance separating the members of the pair. Thus, despite their individual vigilance being unaffected by the number of other pademelons in the feeding aggregation, pademelons were nonetheless sensitive to the presence of conspecifics and adjusted their behavior in relation to their separation from neighbors. Thus, some vigilance benefits may be obtained from the presence of conspecifics even in species that aggregate only temporarily on food patches without forming more permanent social groups.

Key words: antipredator behavior, independent scanning, neighbor effect, synchronization of vigilance, vigilance.

Received 26 November 2007; revised 1 July 2008; accepted 10 July 2008.


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