Seeking temporal refugia to heat stress: Increasing nocturnal activity despite predation risk

Flexibility in activity timing may enable organisms to quickly adapt to environmental changes. Under global warming, diurnally adapted endotherms may achieve a better energy balance by shifting their activity towards cooler nocturnal hours. However, this shift may expose animals to new or increased environmental challenges (e.g., increased predation risk, reduced foraging efficiency). We analysed a large dataset of activity data from 47 ibex (Capra ibex) in two protected areas, characterized by varying levels of predation risk (presence vs absence of the wolf – Canis lupus). We found that ibex increased nocturnal activity following warmer days and during brighter nights. Despite the considerable sexual dimorphism typical of this species and the consequent different predation-risk perception, males and females demonstrated consistent responses to heat in both predator-present and predator-absent areas. This supports the hypothesis that shifting activity towards nighttime may be a common ..., Activity data logging: The activity data of individual ibex (18 males and 9 females in PNGP, 12 males and 8 females in SNP, more details in the Supporting Information Table S1 and Table S2) were recorded by means of a dual-axis motion sensor (i.e., accelerometer) fitted on the collars. The accelerometer simultaneously measures along two orthogonal directions the changes in acceleration associated with the actual motion experienced by the collar. On the X-axis, the accelerometer was sensitive to acceleration events with forward/backward direction/axes, while on the Y-axis, it recorded acceleration events with a sideways and rotary direction. The accelerometer had a dynamic range of ±2g and measured activity as the change of static acceleration (gravity) and dynamic acceleration (collar) with a frequency of 4 Hz. The motion data from accelerometers, i.e., activity values, were calculated as the difference between consecutive measurements, averaged over a time interval of 4 or 5 minutes an..., , # README\_for\_data\_Brivio\_etal\_2023

## Description:

This README file describes the data package accompanying the publication: Brivio F., Apollonio M., Anderwald P., Filli F., Bassano B., Bertolucci C., Grignolio S. Seeking temporal refugia to avoid heat stress: increasing nocturnal activity despite predation risk. Proc. R. Soc. B DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1587

## File list:

* “dataset_ibex.nocturnal.activity.csv”
* “dataset_ibex.nocturnal.activity_FEMALES-KID.csv”
* “ibex nocturnal activity analysis.R”

## File description:

“dataset_ibex.nocturnal.activity.csv”: contains the data about the nocturnal activity of Alpine ibex monitored from 2006 to 2019 the critical period for ibex when they experience the highest environmental temperatures and must acquire energy prior to the rigours of winter, (i.e., from 1 May to 31 October) in the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy and in the Swiss National Park (Switzerland). The dataset includes information on individual characteristics a...