Effect of Group Size on Survival of Relocated Prairie Dogs

Kevin W. Robinette; William F. Andelt; Kenneth P. Burnham

doi:10.2307/3801968

Effect of Group Size on Survival of Relocated Prairie Dogs

Journal of Wildlife Management ◽

10.2307/3801968 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 59 (4) ◽

pp. 867 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Kevin W. Robinette ◽

William F. Andelt ◽

Kenneth P. Burnham

Keyword(s):

Group Size ◽

Prairie Dogs

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Catch the wave: prairie dogs assess neighbours’ awareness using contagious displays

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2013.2153 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 281 (1777) ◽

pp. 20132153 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

James F. Hare ◽

Kevin L. Campbell ◽

Robert W. Senkiw

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Real Time ◽

Group Size ◽

Social Information ◽

Group Living ◽

Cynomys Ludovicianus ◽

Prairie Dogs ◽

Social Awareness ◽

Prairie Dog ◽

Active Probing

The jump–yip display of black-tailed prairie dogs ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) is contagious, spreading through a prairie dog town as ‘the wave’ through a stadium. Because contagious communication in primates serves to assess conspecific social awareness, we investigated whether instigators of jump–yip bouts adjusted their behaviour relative to the response of conspecifics recruited to display bouts. Increased responsiveness of neighbouring town members resulted in bout initiators devoting a significantly greater proportion of time to active foraging. Contagious jump–yips thus function to assess neighbours’ alertness, soliciting social information to assess effective conspecific group size in real time and reveal active probing of conspecific awareness consistent with theory of mind in these group-living rodents.

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The effect of group size manipulations on the foraging behavior of black-tailed prairie dogs

Behavioral Ecology ◽

10.1093/beheco/6.4.353 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 353-358 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

S. Dean Kildaw

Keyword(s):

Foraging Behavior ◽

Group Size ◽

Prairie Dogs

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Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2011.0221 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 367 (1597) ◽

pp. 1869-1878 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Kimberly A. Pollard ◽

Daniel T. Blumstein

Keyword(s):

Group Size ◽

Social Role ◽

Alarm Call ◽

Ground Squirrels ◽

Prairie Dogs ◽

Behavioural Ecology ◽

Simple Complex ◽

Repertoire Size ◽

Comprehensive Theory ◽

Call Repertoire

Social living goes hand in hand with communication, but the details of this relationship are rarely simple. Complex communication may be described by attributes as diverse as a species' entire repertoire, signallers' individualistic signatures, or complex acoustic phenomena within single calls. Similarly, attributes of social complexity are diverse and may include group size, social role diversity, or networks of interactions and relationships. How these different attributes of social and communicative complexity co-evolve is an active question in behavioural ecology. Sciurid rodents (ground squirrels, prairie dogs and marmots) provide an excellent model system for studying these questions. Sciurid studies have found that demographic role complexity predicts alarm call repertoire size, while social group size predicts alarm call individuality. Along with other taxa, sciurids reveal an important insight: different attributes of sociality are linked to different attributes of communication. By breaking social and communicative complexity down to different attributes, focused studies can better untangle the underlying evolutionary relationships and move us closer to a comprehensive theory of how sociality and communication evolve.

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