10.7291/D1XM3B
Beltran, Roxanne
0000-0002-8520-1105
University of California, Santa Cruz
Shukla, Ishana
University of California, Santa Cruz
Kilpatrick, A. Marm
University of California, Santa Cruz
Variation in resting strategies across trophic levels and habitats in mammals
Dryad
dataset
2021
2022-09-01T00:00:00Z
2022-09-01T00:00:00Z
en
42020 bytes
4
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Mammals must carefully balance rest with other behaviors that influence
fitness (e.g., foraging, finding a mate) while minimizing predation risk.
However, factors influencing resting strategies and the degree to which
resting strategies are driven by the activities of predators and/or prey
remain largely unknown. Our goal was to examine how mammalian resting
strategies varied with trophic level, body mass, and habitat. We reviewed
findings from 127 publications and classified the resting strategies of
terrestrial and aquatic mammalian species into three categories: social
(e.g., resting in groups), temporal (e.g., resting during the day), or
spatial (e.g., resting in burrows). Temporal strategies were most common
(54% of cases), but the prevalence of strategies varied with body mass and
among trophic levels. Specifically, lower trophic levels and smaller
species such as rodents and lagomorphs used more spatial and social
resting strategies whereas top predators and larger species used mostly
temporal resting strategies. Resting strategies also varied among habitat
types (e.g., rainforest versus grassland) but this was primarily because
closely related species shared both habitats and resting strategies. Human
presence also affected resting strategies at all trophic levels but most
strongly influenced top predators through shifts in rest timing.
Human-induced behavioral changes in rest patterns cascade to modify
behaviors across multiple trophic levels. These findings advance our
fundamental understanding of natural history and ecology in wild animals
and provide a roadmap for future comparative studies.