Age and sex influence marmot antipredator behavior during periods of heightened risk
Abstract
Animals adjust their antipredator behavior according to environmental variation in risk, and to account for their ability to respond to threats. Intrinsic factors that influence an animal's ability to respond to predators (e.g., age, body condition) should explain variation in antipredator behavior. For example, a juvenile might allocate more time to vigilance than an adult because mortality as a result of predation is often high for this age class; however, the relationship between age/vulnerability and antipredator behavior is not always clear or as predicted. We explored the influence of intrinsic factors on yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) antipredator behavior using data pooled from 4 years of experiments. We hypothesized that inherently vulnerable animals (e.g., young, males, and individuals in poor condition) would exhibit more antipredator behavior prior to and immediately following conspecific alarm calls. As expected, males and yearlings suppressed foraging more than females and adults following alarm call playbacks. In contrast to predictions, animals in better condition respond more than animals in below average condition. Interestingly, these intrinsic properties did not influence baseline time budgets; animals of all ages, sexes, and condition levels devoted comparable amounts of time to foraging prior to alarm calls. Our results support the hypothesis that inherent differences in vulnerability influence antipredator behavior; furthermore, it appears that a crucial, but poorly acknowledged, interaction exists between risk and state-dependence. Elevated risk may be required to reveal the workings of state-dependent behavior, and studies of antipredator behavior in a single context may draw incomplete conclusions about age- or sex-specific strategies.
Local Knowledge Graph (22 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.
Alarm calling in yellow-bellied marmots: I. The meaning of situationally variable alarm calls
Yellow-bellied marmots discriminate between the alarm calls of individuals and are more responsive to calls from juveniles
Locomotor ability and wariness in yellow-bellied marmots
Marmot capture history data and growing season length data
Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal: Data and analysis
Marmot mass gain rates relate to their group’s social structure
An Ecological Basis for Beaver Management in the Rocky Mountain Region
Ecosystem Disturbance and Wildlife Conservation in Western Grasslands
Gunnison sage grouse is being considered for endangered species status
Cited By (47 times, 11 in Knowledge Hub)
Does rainfall or temperature influence antipredator vigilance in a hibernating mammal?
The heritability of fear: decomposing sources of variation in marmot flight initiation distance
Social security: Does social position influence flight initiation distance?
Does current weather or seasonality influence antipredator vigilance in a hibernating mammal?
Social security: Does social position influence flight initiation distance?
Social Security: social relationship strength and connectedness influence how marmots respond to alarm calls
Social security: are socially connected individuals less vigilant?
Assessing the sensitivity of foraging and vigilance to internal state and environmental variables in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>).
Social security: Are socially connected individuals less vigilant?
Yellow-bellied marmots do not compensate for a late start: the role of maternal investment in shaping life-history trajectories
Ontogenetic and sex differences influence alarm call responses in mammals: A meta-analysis
References (40)
11 in Knowledge Hub, 29 external