Measuring the benefit of a risk-induced trait response: vigilance and survival probability

Defensive traits are hypothesized to benefit prey by reducing predation risk from a focal predator but come at a cost to the fitness of the prey. Variation in the expression of defensive traits is seen among individuals within the same population, and in the same individual in response to changes in the environment (i.e., phenotypically plastic responses). It is the relative magnitude of the cost and benefit of the defensive trait which underlies the defensive trait expression and its consequences to the community. However, whereas the cost has received much attention in ecological research, the benefit is seldom examined. Even in a defensive trait as extensively studied as vigilance, there are few studies of the purported benefit of the behavior, namely that vigilance enhances survival. We examined if prey vigilance increased survival and quantified that benefit in a natural system, with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) experiencing unmanipulated levels of predation risk from..., Behavioral observations of deer were made with remote cameras, and survival data were collected using GPS collars deployed on the same deer. We captured and collared white-tailed deer between December 20th, 2014 and March 5th, 2017 via aerial helicopter net-gunning, rocket netting, or chemical immobilization via darting. We ear-tagged individual deer with a unique identifier and further marked collars with a unique combination of collar tags, symbols, and numbers to facilitate identification. If we received a mortality signal or suspected a mortality from visually inspecting daily movement data, we attempted to retrieve the collar and perform a field investigation within 24 hours. We assessed cause of death using field evidence gathered during investigations. We deployed 180 unbaited remote-sensing cameras across three grids from January 2015 to December 2017. Each 29-square-kilometer grid was separated by at least 13 kilometers and contained 60 cameras. Within each grid, we placed 40 c..., , # Measuring the benefit of a risk-induced trait response: vigilance and survival probability

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xszb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xszb)

Two datasets were used for this paper. The first dataset is vigilance data captured from the three camera grids deployed for the associated study. The second dataset is the survival data for the same deer captured on camera, taken from the telemetry tracking data.  

## Description of the data and file structures

VIGILANCE DATA

The first dataset (file name \"Vigilance_Data.csv\") contains the vigilance data for the deer used for this study. This data was used to derive a vigilance index for each unique individual deer in the study. The first column (camID) identifies the camera location associated with that data point. The second column (did) gives the name of the unique identifier for an individual deer.  The third column (DT_POSIX) provides the date and time of the photo. The fourth column (grpsize) supplies t...