Red kangaroos (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macropus rufus</Emphasis>) receive an antipredator benefit from aggregation |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Daniel?T?BlumsteinEmail author Janice?C?Daniel |
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Institution: | (1) Present address: Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology and Evolution, University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA;(2) The Cooperative Research Centre for the Conservation and Management of Marsupials, Macquarie University, 2109 Sydney, NSW , Australia |
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Abstract: | For species that cannot seek cover to escape predators, aggregation becomes an important strategy to reduce predation risk.
However, aggregation may not be entirely beneficial because aggregated animals may compete for access to limited resources
and might even attract predators. Available evidence suggests that foraging competition influences time allocation in large-bodied
macropodid marsupials, but previous studies have focused primarily on species in areas with protective cover. We studied red
kangaroos, a species often found in open country without noticeable cover, to determine whether they experienced a net benefit
by aggregation. Red kangaroos varied their time allocation as a function of group size and, importantly, more variation in
time allocation to vigilance and foraging was explained by non-linear models than by linear models. This suggests red kangaroos
directly translated the reduction of predation risk brought about by aggregation into greater time foraging and less time
engaged in vigilance. We infer that red kangaroos received a net benefit by aggregation. Social species living in the open
may be generally expected to rely on others to help manage predation risk.
Communicated by K. Kotrschal |
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Keywords: | Antipredator behavior Benefits and costs of sociality Group-size effects Red kangaroo |
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