Helicopter parenting: Local-scale environment determines hiding and supervision in neonatal ungulates

Ungulate species are classified as ‘hiders’ rather than ‘followers’ when
neonates tend to remain separated from their mother and hidden within
vegetation during the early postpartum period. Among species, hiding is
associated with the availability of cover habitat; however, our
understanding of these behaviours often has been limited to relatively
coarse and infrequent observations. We leveraged modern technologies,
including GPS collars affixed to neonates, LiDAR, fine-scaled encounter
risk with predators, accelerometers and multiscale temperature readings,
to complement these observations in evaluating how predation risk,
thermoregulation and nutritional attributes of habitat contribute to
hiding behaviour and its consequences for survival in mule deer,
Odocoileus hemionus. Hiding decisions by mule deer were nuanced and
counter to prevailing notions that suggest hiding is associated with
increasing availability of cover. In support of the risk hypothesis, mule
deer were most likely to hide in areas where vegetation height was low and
encounter risk with predators was high, and behavioural shifts were
prominent relative to variation in time of day, with hiding behaviour
increasing at night during periods of predator activity. Nutrition and
thermoregulatory hypotheses were supported in that hiding was more likely
and neonate and mother were in closer proximity in areas with greater
resource availability, and neonates adjusted hiding behaviour to minimize
thermoregulatory costs. Variation in hiding indicated the importance of
activity and interaction with the mother for neonate survival. Broad-scale
habitat patterns have proven useful for defining hiding behaviour across
species and may play an important role in setting the bounds that define
individual variation; however, we encourage considering local conditions
as drivers of hiding and following behaviour in ungulates. Together,
patterns across multiple scales are more likely to describe the nature of
neonate behaviour, relative to considerations at one scale alone.