When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations
Vigilance is an important behaviour to monitor the environment from detecting predators to tracking conspecifics. However, little is known about how vigilance changes over time either without disturbance (vigilance decrement) or after a change occurred. The time course of vigilance can indicate how...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Birds |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6004/4/1/1 |
| _version_ | 1797858461887758336 |
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| author | Claudia Mettke-Hofmann |
| author_facet | Claudia Mettke-Hofmann |
| author_sort | Claudia Mettke-Hofmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Vigilance is an important behaviour to monitor the environment from detecting predators to tracking conspecifics. However, little is known about how vigilance changes over time either without disturbance (vigilance decrement) or after a change occurred. The time course of vigilance can indicate how animals perceive a situation and the potential mechanism used to deal with it. I investigated the time course of vigilance in Gouldian Finches in four situations (familiar environment, two changed environments–novel object at a neutral location (exploration trial) or above the feeder (neophobia trial), novel environment). The frequency of head movements was assessed in four consecutive 15-min blocks in same sex pairs with a high frequency generally seen as indicative of high vigilance. Vigilance decreased over time in the familiar situation indicating vigilance decrement with a similar time course in the exploration trial. Vigilance was consistently high in the neophobia trial and only returned to normal in the last block. Finally, vigilance plummeted in the novel environment and did not return to normal within an hour. Results suggest that perceived threats affected vigilance and that information gathering reduced uncertainty allowing vigilance to return to normal levels but with different time courses depending on the situation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:13:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15638d1b4e1f4d8e94bcec548c5f6ce0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-6004 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:13:47Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Birds |
| spelling | doaj.art-15638d1b4e1f4d8e94bcec548c5f6ce02023-03-28T13:13:30ZengMDPI AGBirds2673-60042022-12-014111410.3390/birds4010001When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four SituationsClaudia Mettke-Hofmann0School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, James Parsons Building, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UKVigilance is an important behaviour to monitor the environment from detecting predators to tracking conspecifics. However, little is known about how vigilance changes over time either without disturbance (vigilance decrement) or after a change occurred. The time course of vigilance can indicate how animals perceive a situation and the potential mechanism used to deal with it. I investigated the time course of vigilance in Gouldian Finches in four situations (familiar environment, two changed environments–novel object at a neutral location (exploration trial) or above the feeder (neophobia trial), novel environment). The frequency of head movements was assessed in four consecutive 15-min blocks in same sex pairs with a high frequency generally seen as indicative of high vigilance. Vigilance decreased over time in the familiar situation indicating vigilance decrement with a similar time course in the exploration trial. Vigilance was consistently high in the neophobia trial and only returned to normal in the last block. Finally, vigilance plummeted in the novel environment and did not return to normal within an hour. Results suggest that perceived threats affected vigilance and that information gathering reduced uncertainty allowing vigilance to return to normal levels but with different time courses depending on the situation.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6004/4/1/1vigilance decrementGouldian finchnovel environmentnovel objectexplorationneophilia |
| spellingShingle | Claudia Mettke-Hofmann When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations Birds vigilance decrement Gouldian finch novel environment novel object exploration neophilia |
| title | When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations |
| title_full | When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations |
| title_fullStr | When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations |
| title_full_unstemmed | When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations |
| title_short | When to Return to Normal? Temporal Dynamics of Vigilance in Four Situations |
| title_sort | when to return to normal temporal dynamics of vigilance in four situations |
| topic | vigilance decrement Gouldian finch novel environment novel object exploration neophilia |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6004/4/1/1 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT claudiamettkehofmann whentoreturntonormaltemporaldynamicsofvigilanceinfoursituations |