How group size affects vigilance dynamics and time allocation patterns: the key role of imitation and tempo.

ABSTRACT: In the context of social foraging, predator detection has been the subject of numerous studies, which acknowledge the adaptive response of the individual to the trade-off between feeding and vigilance. Typically, animals gain energy by increasing their feeding time and decreasing their vigilance effort with increasing group size, without increasing their risk of predation ('group size effect'). Research on the biological utility of vigilance has prevailed over considerations of the mechanistic rules that link individual decisions to group behavior. With sheep as a model species, we identified how the behaviors of conspecifics affect the individual decisions to switch activity. We highlight a simple mechanism whereby the group size effect on collective vigilance dynamics is shaped by two ke

SUBMITTER: Michelena P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3078120 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature