Vigilance behaviour in Siberian ibex (Capra sibirica): Effect of group size, group type, sex and age

Abstract

Gregarious prey species modify their behaviours in response to predation risk in two ways: by increasing vigilance level or enlarging herd size. However, individuals of various sex and age have different responses to the same danger, and even the same individuals react differently depending on their status during biological events or within group types. But how these factors influence the interactions between vigilance level and group size is still poorly understood. Therefore, we studied this phenomenon by observing and analyzing the behaviours of the Siberian ibex (Capra sibirica) in the Eastern Tian-Shan Mountains (China). We found that similar to many other gregarious ungulates, Siberian ibex demonstrated a decrease in vigilance level with an increase in group size, since staying in larger groups increased the probability of predator detection and reduced the possibility of being captured. In general, males were more vigilant than females during the rut due to the sharp increase in their social alertness to achieve greater success in reproduction. In contrast, females were more vigilant than males out of rutting time, particularly significantly following parturition, since mothers spent a lot of their energy in maternal care, which coupled with having small and unexperienced newborns, made them more vulnerable to predation than other conspecifics. Siberian ibex had the same vigilance level in summer and winter, because of seasonally opposite trade-offs between feeding duration and vigilance level based on seasonal changes in food availability. Individuals in mixed-sex and female groups were more often targeted by predators, prompting individuals from these groups to be more vigilant than in male groups. The vigilance level in males decreased with age likely because of their increased body size and enhanced vigilance experience, which reduced their risk of predation. Our study confirmed that the Siberian ibex’ vigilance level inversely correlated with group size, but other various factors, such as forage biomass/quality, sex, biological cycle, group types and age, had significant impacts on their interrelationship.