Cargando…

Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Animals frequently interrupt their activities to monitor their surroundings for possible threats such as predators and intruders. How animals carry out this vigilance has received little attention. In particular, the quality of vigilance depends on where animals look and how long eac...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Beauchamp, Guy, Bowman, Reed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9775325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36552280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology11121769
_version_ 1784855616698712064
author Beauchamp, Guy
Bowman, Reed
author_facet Beauchamp, Guy
Bowman, Reed
author_sort Beauchamp, Guy
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Animals frequently interrupt their activities to monitor their surroundings for possible threats such as predators and intruders. How animals carry out this vigilance has received little attention. In particular, the quality of vigilance depends on where animals look and how long each look lasts. We examine how vigilance is organized in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma caerulescens). During vigilance, these birds turn their heads in different directions to detect threats. We found that birds turned their heads regularly and also regularly returned their gaze to areas previously monitored, which is predicted when predators and intruders rely on surprise to approach. Birds turned their heads in several directions during vigilance, but often more frequently on one side of the body than the other, which was not predicted for regular vigilance. Looks were shorter in smaller groups and in juveniles presumably to increase visual coverage in more threatening situations. Visual monitoring strategies during vigilance reflect the risk posed by predators and intruders. ABSTRACT: Vigilance is important for early detection of threats. Previous studies have focused on the allocation of time to vigilance but neglected how animals monitor their surroundings during vigilance. Where animals look and how long each look lasts can affect the quality of visual monitoring and thus the ability to detect threats during vigilance. We examined visual monitoring strategies in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), a cooperative breeder with sentinel behaviour. Sentinels in this species make head turns from vantage points to detect the arrival of predators and intruding neighbours. We found that sentinels initiated head turns at regular intervals and also returned their gaze to areas previously monitored at regular intervals, which is predicted when predators and intruders rely on surprise rather than stealth to approach. Sentinels made head turns in several directions, but often more frequently on one side of the body than the other, which was not predicted for regular vigilance. Average look duration during sentinel bouts was shorter in smaller groups and in juveniles. We argue that shorter looks are beneficial to increase visual coverage in more threatening situations. Our study highlights how visual monitoring strategies during vigilance reflect the risk posed by predators and intruders.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9775325
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97753252022-12-23 Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder Beauchamp, Guy Bowman, Reed Biology (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Animals frequently interrupt their activities to monitor their surroundings for possible threats such as predators and intruders. How animals carry out this vigilance has received little attention. In particular, the quality of vigilance depends on where animals look and how long each look lasts. We examine how vigilance is organized in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma caerulescens). During vigilance, these birds turn their heads in different directions to detect threats. We found that birds turned their heads regularly and also regularly returned their gaze to areas previously monitored, which is predicted when predators and intruders rely on surprise to approach. Birds turned their heads in several directions during vigilance, but often more frequently on one side of the body than the other, which was not predicted for regular vigilance. Looks were shorter in smaller groups and in juveniles presumably to increase visual coverage in more threatening situations. Visual monitoring strategies during vigilance reflect the risk posed by predators and intruders. ABSTRACT: Vigilance is important for early detection of threats. Previous studies have focused on the allocation of time to vigilance but neglected how animals monitor their surroundings during vigilance. Where animals look and how long each look lasts can affect the quality of visual monitoring and thus the ability to detect threats during vigilance. We examined visual monitoring strategies in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), a cooperative breeder with sentinel behaviour. Sentinels in this species make head turns from vantage points to detect the arrival of predators and intruding neighbours. We found that sentinels initiated head turns at regular intervals and also returned their gaze to areas previously monitored at regular intervals, which is predicted when predators and intruders rely on surprise rather than stealth to approach. Sentinels made head turns in several directions, but often more frequently on one side of the body than the other, which was not predicted for regular vigilance. Average look duration during sentinel bouts was shorter in smaller groups and in juveniles. We argue that shorter looks are beneficial to increase visual coverage in more threatening situations. Our study highlights how visual monitoring strategies during vigilance reflect the risk posed by predators and intruders. MDPI 2022-12-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9775325/ /pubmed/36552280 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology11121769 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Beauchamp, Guy
Bowman, Reed
Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title_full Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title_fullStr Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title_full_unstemmed Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title_short Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder
title_sort visual monitoring strategies of sentinels in a cooperative breeder
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9775325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36552280
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology11121769
work_keys_str_mv AT beauchampguy visualmonitoringstrategiesofsentinelsinacooperativebreeder
AT bowmanreed visualmonitoringstrategiesofsentinelsinacooperativebreeder