Reactive response to predation risk affects foraging time of hares, yet not their phosphorus intake

Antipredator responses could affect nutrient intake, which could lead to nutritional deficits. However, little is known about the antipredator response of small herbivores because most are nocturnal or crepuscular and therefore very difficult to study in the field. Therefore, we experimentally assessed the effect of a reactive response to predation risk on the nutrient (i.e., phosphorous) intake of the European hare (Lepus europaeus) using three different playback sounds. Additionally, we studied the time spent being costly vigilant, the time spent foraging, and the vegetation height in which the hares were present using accelerometers and GPS. Our results showed that elevated predation risk from our playback experiment did not affect the (1) phosphorus intake, (2) time spent being costly vigilant, and (3) time spent in tall vegetation. However, elevated predation risk did increase the time spent foraging. Possibly hares spent more time foraging with an increased predation risk because ..., Study site All data used in this study were collected by Weterings et al. (2018) in 2014–2015 in a coastal dune landscape (52°33′N, 4°38′E) in the Netherlands. In this dune landscape, we focused on two study sites (275 and 50 ha) with a population of European hares (±15 hares/km2). The areas consisted of patches of grass, thicket, brushwood, and forest. Research design and data collection In October 2014, nine hares were caught with Speedset static hare nets (height 45 cm, with 13 cm full mesh; JB’s Nets, Alexandria, UK), blindfolded (Paci et al. 2012), and kept in darkened boxes temporarily to reduce stress. Five hares were caught from the Koningsbos area and four hares from the Vennewater area. Hares were equipped with a lightweight GPS-ACC collar (69 g, 1.8% ± 0.2 SD of a hare’s body weight) that included a radio link for wireless communication (Type A, E-obs GmBH, Gruenwald, Germany) to minimize disturbance of the hares. Sex and life stage were determined by Stroh's method (juvenile..., , This README file was generated on 2023-12-11 by Samara Brandsen & Louise Vermorken.  1\. Title of Dataset: Reactive response to predation risk affects foraging time of hares, yet not their phosphorus intake 2\. Author Information  Name: Samara Brandsen Institution: Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands Email:     Name: Louise Vermorken Institution: Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands Email:   Name: Henry Kuipers   Institution: Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands Email:   Name: Inger K. De Jonge       Institution: Wageningen University & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Email:  Name: Sip van Wieren Institution: Wageningen University, The Netherlands  Name: Martijn Weterings       Institution: Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences & Wageningen University, The Netherlands Email:   3\. Date of data collection (si...