Social security: Are socially connected individuals less vigilant?

Abstract

Group size effects, whereby animals allocate less time to antipredator vigilance as a function of increasing group sizes are widely reported in many taxa, but group size is but one of many social attributes that could increase a individual’s sense of security. Indeed, meta-analyses suggest that group size only explains about 20% of the variation in vigilance, and studies have shown that social factors, such as dominance status, also influences perceived risk and time allocated to vigilance. Social network statistics quantify a variety of specific social attributes, some of which have been suggested to influence security. Using vigilance as an indicator of risk assessment, we tested the prediction that more socially connected female yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) allocate less time to vigilance while foraging compared to less socially connected individuals. We used a principle component analysis to reduce social attributes to three factors. After explaining variation accounted for by glucocorticoid levels, substrate, incline, and day of the year and, individuals in larger social groups allocated less time to vigilance while those in more cohesive social relationships allocated more time to vigilance. These somewhat contradictory results suggest that vigilance is multi-faceted and highlight the importance of using an attribute-based approach to explaining variation in vigilance. The attribute-based approach has allowed us, for the first time to show that social group size indeed reduces risk, and suggest that maintaining social relationships requires social vigilance. 2

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