CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Optimal foraging models predict animals will consumemore food from patches of higher initial densities.They also predict that when food is scarce in the environment,animals will have greater foraging effortsin the patch and hence shorter vigilance times. Asan anti-predator behavior an increase in group sizeis correlated with a reduction of individual vigilancetime. We evaluated Dolichotis patagonum?s (mara)behaviors: feeding, vigilance, walking, and others(sniffing, grooming, resting) in relation to differentfood densities (100 g, 70 g and 40 g of alfalfa pellet,mixed with 5 kg of sifted soil, offered in wooden box)in a field experiment by using camera traps. As anovelty, maras showed nocturnal activity. They alsoshowed an increase in vigilance time when theywere in pairs compared to when they were alone, byalternating feeding and vigilance behaviors. Whenfood density changed, no variation in vigilance wasobserved and food intake only changed between100 g and the other two food densities offered. Wepropose that: first, maras are cathemeral animals.Second, mara?s knowledge about patches is criticalto assess patch quality; and that alternating feedingand vigilance when in pairs, could be and efficientanti-predator strategy in environments with highpredator pressure.