Proactive cursorial and ambush predation risk avoidance in four African herbivore species

Most herbivores must balance demands to meet nutritional requirements, maintain stable thermoregulation and avoid predation. Species-specific predator and prey characteristics determine the ability of prey to avoid predation and the ability of predators to maximise hunting success. Using GPS collar data from African wild dogs, lions, impala, tsessebe, wildebeest and zebra in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, we studied proactive predation risk avoidance by herbivores. We considered predator activity level in relation to prey movement, predator and prey habitat selection, and preferential use of areas by prey. We compared herbivore behaviour to lion and wild dog activity patterns and determined the effect of seasonal resource availability and prey body mass on anti-predator behaviour. Herbivore movement patterns were more strongly correlated to lion than wild dog activity. Habitat selection by predators was not activity level-dependent and, while prey and predators differed to some extent in..., Data were collected using GPS-enabled satellite collars fitted to African wild dogs, lions, impala, tsessebe, wildebeest and zebra in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.
GPS data were used to extract information relating to hourly distances moved, habitat selection and resource selection functions., , # Data from: Proactive cursorial and ambush predation risk avoidance in four African herbivore species

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b8zr](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w0vt4b8zr)

The dataset contains R scripts and all the .csv files necessary to run the scripts.

## Description of the data and file structure

Data were derived from GPS data collected from impala, tsessebe, wildebeest, zebra, African wild dog and lion in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, between 2014-2016. 

Data are split into four folders: Distances, Predator habitat selection, Herbivore habitat selection and RSFs. Each folder contains the R script and all necessary .csv files to run the code and duplicate the results from the manuscript, which are presented in Notepad documents. 

The Distances folder contains data relating to hourly distances covered by prey species during period of high and low activity. Files are split by herbivore species, in .csv format. Variables are Species (impala, tsessebe, wildebeest or...