Supplementary material from "Friends because of foes: synchronous movement within predator-prey domains" ...

• Main Authors: Prokopenko, Christina, Ellington, E. Hance, Robitaille, Alec, Aubin, Jaclyn, Balluffi-Fry, Julianna, Laforge, Michel, Webber, Quinn, Zabihi-Seissan, Sana, Vander Wal, Eric
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2024
• Subjects: Animal behaviour; caribou
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7425758; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Friends_because_of_foes_synchronous_movement_within_predator-prey_domains_/7425758

For prey, movement synchrony represents a potent anti-predator strategy. Prey, however, must balance the costs and benefits of using conspecifics to mediate risk. Thus, the emergent patterns of risk-driven sociality depend on variation in space and in the predators and prey themselves. We applied the concept of predator-prey habitat domain, the space in which animals acquire food resources, to test the conditions under which individuals synchronize their movements relative to predator and prey habitat domains. We tested the response of movement synchrony of prey to predator-prey domains in two populations of ungulates that vary in their gregariousness and predator community: 1) elk, which are preyed on by wolves, and 2) caribou, which are preyed on by coyotes and black bears. Prey in both communities responded to cursorial predators by increasing synchrony during seasons of greater predation pressure. Elk moved more synchronously in the wolf habitat domain during winter and caribou moved more synchronously ...