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Evolutionary, molecular and comparative zoology
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 57(6)

Vigilance in a solitary marsupial, the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus)

François-René Favreau A , Peter J. Jarman B , Anne W. Goldizen C , Anne-Laure Dubot A , Stéphane Sourice A and Olivier Pays A D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A LEESA – Groupe Ecologie et Conservation des Vertébrés, Université d’Angers, Campus Belle Beille, 2 bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, France.

B School of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.

C School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: olivier.pays@univ-angers.fr

Australian Journal of Zoology 57(6) 363-371 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO09062
Submitted: 17 May 2009  Accepted: 16 November 2009   Published: 18 December 2009

Abstract

We studied vigilance activity in a wild population of the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), a large, solitary, burrow-using, marsupial prey species in which individuals tolerate the presence of conspecifics within their home range. For the first time, we report postures and rates of vigilance in common wombats; our results show a limited repertoire of vigilant postures and low overall rates of vigilance. Because few studies of birds and mammals that have reported the effect of distance to conspecifics on the vigilance of focal animals have considered solitary prey species, we tested this effect in wombats. Our results show that a model including distance to cover and distance to the nearest conspecific, but not time of day, best explained the variation in the proportion of time that focal individuals spent in vigilance. Individual vigilance decreased when distance to cover increased. Vigilance of wombats increased when there was a conspecific within a radius of 70 m of the focal individual. In addition, we tested whether pairs of nearby wombats scanned independently of one another, coordinated their activity in non-overlapping bouts of vigilance or synchronised their bouts of vigilance. Wombats in close proximity exhibited independent bouts of individual vigilant and foraging activity. Thus, in this solitary species, our results support the assumption that individuals scan independently of each other.

Additional keywords: anti-predator behaviour, conspecific effect, independent scanning, synchronisation, vigilance.


Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to M. Jones, who gave us the opportunity to conduct field studies with her team in the study area, and the rangers at Narawntapu National Park, who allowed us to study wombats. We would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.


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