Premium
Ecological factors affecting flight initiation distance in Daurian ground squirrels ( Spermophilus dauricus )
Author(s) -
Shuai LingYing,
Zhou Yang,
Yang YuXia,
Xue QiQian,
Xie ZiYang,
Zhang FuShun
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/eth.12865
Subject(s) - vegetation (pathology) , predation , foraging , ecology , grassland , predator , geography , forage , environmental science , biology , medicine , pathology
More often than not, animals forage under predation risk. Foragers, therefore, face a challenge to balance between two conflicting tasks, namely energy intake and safety. Flight initiation distance (FID, defined as the distance between a prey and a predator when the prey starts to flee) has been widely measured in many taxa to study such economic trade‐offs. However, FID may also be affected by limitations on the prey's ability to detect predators, especially when there is visual obstruction caused by surrounding vegetation. Although both vegetation cover and vegetation height may contribute to such obstruction, the effect of vegetation height on FID has not been well studied. In this study, we explored the effects of vegetation height, vegetation cover and distance to refuge on FID in free‐living Daurian ground squirrels ( Spermophilus dauricus ) inhabiting a grassland in Inner Mongolia, China. Multiple linear regressions suggested that both vegetation height and distance to refuge significantly affected FID in S. dauricus . Ground squirrels fled earlier when vegetation was low or when foraging farther away from a refuge. No significant effect of vegetation cover on FID was detected. Our results have implications for ecologically based pest control, and FID may be used as an effective and easy‐to‐use behavioral indicator in wildlife management.