Abstract
Rest contributes a large part of animals’ daily life, and animals usually rest in two ways, standing or in recumbence. Small or medium sized ungulates bed to rest in most cases, and standing rest is very rare and hardly seen. Here we described a standing rest behavior of Tibetan antelopes (Pantholops hodgsonii) living on the Tibet Plateau which has not been reported before. We named the standing rest behavior Puppet behavior, since the antelope stand still for a certain time. Of the 304 individuals observed, 48.3% (98/203) of adult and sub-adult males expressed the Puppet behavior, whereas only 6.3% (6/96) of females did, indicating an obvious sexual difference. Puppet behavior occurred more frequently at noon and in the afternoon on sunny and cloudy days, meaning that daytime and weather were both influential factors. Puppet behavior was usually accompanied with rumination and sometimes ended with leg-shaking. Our results suggest that Puppet behavior may be an adaptive form of rest, which may serve a thermoregulatory and anti-predation function, and may be simpler and safer than recumbent rest.
Highlights
Animals usually behave in a relatively fixed manner, and these common behaviors can be classified into several categories including feeding, resting, moving, alerting, grooming, etc
Most (63.9%, 92/144) of the clearly observed Puppet behaviors were found to be accompanied by oral rumination (S2 Movie)
We found a very interesting behavior of Tibetan antelopes, which was named Puppet behavior since they didn’t feed, didn’t move, and just kept their body motionless, like a puppet (S1 Movie and Fig 1)
Summary
Animals usually behave in a relatively fixed manner, and these common behaviors can be classified into several categories including feeding, resting, moving, alerting, grooming, etc. Animals need to sleep or take rest for 2 to more than 20 hours a day to recover from the exhaustion due to daily activities [3,4,5,6]. Animals need to adopt a proper way and time to rest, in order to recover physiologically and avoid their predators. Animals take rest either by standing or bedding (in recumbence) [9]. Standing rest highlights the animal for observation by predators [7]. To adopt standing rest probably depends upon the anti-predator ability of the animals or their body size. Small or medium sized cloven-hoofed animals tend to bed to rest.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
