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Does sex affect both individual and collective vigilance in social mammalian herbivores: the case of the eastern grey kangaroo?

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Abstract

In several vertebrate taxa, males and females differ in the proportions of time they individually devote to vigilance, commonly attributed to sex differences in intra-specific competition or in absolute energy requirements. However, an effect of sex on collective vigilance is less often studied (and therefore rarely predicted), despite being relevant to any consideration of the adaptiveness of mixed- vs single-sex grouping. Controlling for group size, we studied the effect of sex on vigilance in the sexually dimorphic eastern grey kangaroo Macropus giganteus, analysing vigilance at two structural levels: individual vigilance and the group’s collective vigilance. Knowing that group members in this species tend to synchronise their bouts of vigilance, we tested (for the first time) whether sex affects the degree of synchrony between group members. We found that females were individually more vigilant than males and that their vigilance rate was unaffected by the presence of males. Collective vigilance did not differ between female-only and mixed-sex groups of the same size. Vigilance in mixed-sex groups was neither more nor less synchronous than in single-sex groups of females, and the presence of males seemed not to affect the degree of synchrony between females. Sixty-six percent of vigilant acts were unique (performed when no other kangaroo was alert), and only about one unique vigilant act in every three induced a collective wave of vigilance. The proportions of vigilant acts that were unique were 60% for females but only 46% for males. However, the sexes differed little in the rates at which their unique vigilant acts were copied. This limited study shows that the differences in vigilance between male and female kangaroos had no discernible effect upon collective vigilance.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge M. Curkpatrick for permission to use the Newholme Field Laboratory, University of New England. O. Pays was financially supported by the Conseil Régional de Champagne-Ardenne and the Communauté de Communes de l’Argonne Ardennaise. The Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, contributed financially to this research attributing a grant to Olivier Pays.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Paysages et Biodiversité, Université d’Angers, UFR Sciences, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045, Angers, France

    Olivier Pays

  2. Centre de Recherche et de Formation en Eco-éthologie, 2C2A, 08240, Boult-aux-Bois, France

    Olivier Pays

  3. Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage, INRA, BP 52627, 31326, Castanet-Tolosan cedex, France

    Olivier Pays

  4. Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia

    Peter J. Jarman

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  1. Olivier Pays
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Correspondence to Olivier Pays.

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Communicated by T. Czeschlik

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Pays, O., Jarman, P.J. Does sex affect both individual and collective vigilance in social mammalian herbivores: the case of the eastern grey kangaroo?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 757–767 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0501-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0501-4

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