Antipredator behaviour of European rabbits by day and night

GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Paper Citation Di Stefano, SA., Weston, MA., Plotz, RD, Krauss, J., Yokochi, K., Rendall, AR. (in press). Antipredator behaviour of European rabbits by day and night. Behavioural Ecology 2. Brief abstract We explore the escape behaviour of European rabbits when approached by a person during daytime and nighttime. Rabbits were further from cover by night than by day and were more alert when near cover. Rabbits fled more directly towards cover the further they were from cover only at night and in the absence of cats and foxes. 3. Originators Anthony R Rendall 4. Contact information Anthony R Rendall, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, 3125, VIC, AUSTRALIA. [e-mail] 5. Date of data collection 26/09/2026 6. Geographic location(s) of data collection Victoria, Australia 7. Information about funding sources that supported the collection and curation of thedata The Centre for Integrative Ecology and School of Life and Environmental Science at Deakin University provided operational funding for this study. ACCESS INFORMATION 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike DATA FILES AND VARIABLES 1. Data Supplement Contains all raw data associated with the manuscript. Variables include: · ID: Unique identifier · Type: Whether the FID was conducted visually (no assistance to human vision) or with the aid of a thermal scope. · Stimulus: The nature of the approach to the animal, in this case, all approaches were single-walker approaches · Date: Date FID was conducted · Time: Time the FID was conducted · Fenced Reserve: Whether the FID was conducted within our outside of a fenced conservation reserve · Common Name: The animals common name · Genus: Genus of the species approached · Species: the species name of the species approached · Subspecies: the subspecies (if relevant) of the species approached) · Time of day: Categorical classification of whether the approach was conducted by day or night · Number: The number of individuals approached (i.e., 1 = singleton, >1 = group size) · Predator Regime: including Foxes and Cats (FC), Cats only (C), or neither foxes or cats (No) · Location: The name of the broad area where the FID was conducted · SD (m): The starting distance of the approach · AD (m): The alert distance (if identifiable) during the approach · FID (m): The Flight-initiation Distance recorded during the approach · Response: The nature of the response of the individual approached (i.e., if they “Walked”, “ran”, or “Hopped” away. · Landscape Type: The broad classification of the dominant surrounding landscape, including either: “Rural”, “Urban”, or “Wilderness”