Wang Xinxin, Yang Le, Zhao Yumeng, Yu Cong, Li Zhongqiu
Lab of Animal Behavior and Conservation, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing, 210023, China.
Tibet Plateau Institute of Biology, 19 Beijing West Road, Lhasa, 850000, China.
Curr Zool. 2021 Feb;67(1):11-16. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoaa024. Epub 2020 May 27.
Vigilance behavior is considered as an effective strategy for prey species to detect predators. An individual benefits from living in a group by reducing the time spent being vigilant without affecting the probability of detecting a predator. However, the mechanism producing a decrease in vigilance with increasing group size is unclear. Many models of vigilance assume that group members scan independently of one another. Yet in recent studies, the other 2 patterns of vigilance, coordination and synchronization, were reported in some species. In 2 summers (2018 and 2019), we studied the group-size effect on vigilance and foraging of Tibetan wild ass in Chang Tang Nature Reserve of Tibet. We also tested whether individuals scan the environment independently, tend to coordinate their scans, or tend to synchronize their vigilance. The results showed that individuals decreased the time spent on vigilance with increasing group size, while increased the time spent foraging. Group members scanned the environment at the same time more frequently and there was a positive correlation between group members' behaviors, indicating that Tibetan wild asses tend to synchronize their vigilance.
警惕行为被认为是猎物物种探测捕食者的一种有效策略。个体通过减少用于警惕的时间而从群居生活中受益，同时又不影响探测到捕食者的概率。然而，随着群体规模的增加，警惕性降低的产生机制尚不清楚。许多警惕模型假设群体成员彼此独立地进行扫视。然而，在最近的研究中，在一些物种中报告了另外两种警惕模式，即协调和同步。在2018年和2019年的两个夏天，我们研究了群体规模对西藏羌塘自然保护区藏野驴警惕性和觅食行为的影响。我们还测试了个体是独立地扫视环境趋势，还是倾向于协调他们的扫视，或者倾向于同步他们的警惕行为。结果表明，个体随着群体规模的增加而减少用于警惕的时间，同时增加用于觅食的时间。群体成员更频繁地同时扫视环境，并且群体成员的行为之间存在正相关关系，这表明藏野驴倾向于同步它们的警惕行为。
