Patch selection: predators and grazing by ‘rule of thumb’

Abstract

‘There are many interrelationships between the habitat type normally occupied by a species and… [its] antipredator behavior… The choice of habitat is perhaps one of the most basic behaviorally mediated processes in an animal’s life’ (Leuthold 1977, p. 40; see also, for example, Hornocker 1970, Bergerud et al. 1983a, b), but proof for this assertion is scanty Few studies have dealt with the problem of how the effect of predation risk must be considered when deciding where to graze or where to go. In this chapter I want to assess the influence of risk of predation on the habitat choice of buffalo. Manyara has a very diverse vegetation or, in the terminology of many zoologists, very many different habitats. The different vegetation communities and landscape ecological units were referred to in Chapter 1 (see for details Loth and Prins 1986). We used two different vegetation typologies to describe vegetation. One was based on the floristic composition of a unit and one was based on vegetation structure. In this chapter I use the term ‘vegetation type’ for groups of plant species that occur together and ‘vegetation structure’ for formations such as grassland, woodland or thicket. I used these different categories to investigate whether specific vegetation types or vegetation structures were more dangerous for buffalo, or more favourable for lions if these vegetations facilitated hunting success by lions.