Proximity to human settlements can reduce vigilance, but increase alarm call responses in African antelopes

Human activities can have complex effects on the antipredator behaviour of wildlife, and an understanding of the intricacies can provide important information for conservation management. In some cases, ‘human shields’ that attract wild ungulates may form around human settlements due to a lower density of large predators. However, human presence may also be associated with increased exposure to a range of anthropogenic threats, such as poaching, predation by dogs, and costly interactions with livestock and their herders. Here we compare the antipredator behaviour of two savannah antelopes, topi (Damaliscus lunatus) and Thomson’s gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), between the relatively undisturbed areas in the interior of the Maasai Mara National Reserve (Kenya) and the peripheral areas next to human settlements by the reserve boundary. We found that both antelope species were less vigilant in the more human-impacted peripheral areas, suggesting a reduction in the overall predation risk. How..., Selection of disturbed and undisturbed areas
Two open plains along the boundaries of the Mara with the Talek Enclave were selected as “disturbed areas”. These areas were exposed to livestock grazing, according to maps of livestock distribution made available by the Mara Predator Conservation Programme (www.marapredatorconservation.org), published evidence (Butt 2010, 2014), and personal observations. All playback trials and vigilance observations were conducted within 1.5 km of the heavily settled Talek town. In order to represent undisturbed areas, I chose three open plains, all > 15 km away from the border with the Talek Enclave, well beyond the maximum penetration range of pastoralists and their herds (~ 6 km; Pangle & Holekamp 2010, www.marapredatorconservation.org). This distance also ensured limited movements between disturbed and undisturbed areas for both study species, based on estimated home range diameter (~ 3 km for resident populations of Thomson’s gazelles; Walther ..., , # Data from: Proximity to human settlements can reduce vigilance, but increase alarm call responses in African antelopes

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.fttdz08xk](10.5061/dryad.fttdz08xk)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: Human_Impact_Antelope_Antipredator_Behaviour_Playback_Experiments_-_Playback_Experiments.csv

**Description:** Data used for analysis of topi and Thomson's gazelle responses to playbacks of conspecific and heterospecific alarm calls

##### Variables

* Experiment_ID: unique individual ID of the experimental trial
* Playback_Receiver_Species: species to which the playback was conducted
* Area:n human-disturbed versus undisturbed
* Playback_Caller_Species: species to which the playback alarm belonged
* Response_Latency(ms): latency to lift head in response to call, in milliseconds
* Response_Duration(ms): duration of heads-up response until grazing resumes, in milliseconds
* Receiver_Sex: sex (male/female) of the individual...,