Data from: Multiple scales of fear: Foraging behavior of white-naped jays in semiarid landscapes
Data files
Oct 28, 2025 version files 19.86 KB
-
DATA-GUD_Beiriz.zip
16.22 KB
-
README.md
3.63 KB
Abstract
Animals must constantly balance the need to find resources with the risk of predation. Not only avoiding direct encounters with predators but also assessing the overall risk of their environment using cues, social information, or habitat traits at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although such a multiscale understanding of the landscape of fear has been recognized, few studies have simultaneously measured how habitat traits at different scales affect risk perception. We used a set of field-based giving-up density experiments to study risk perception of white-naped jays across 20 foraging patches in two semi-arid thorn forests in northeastern Brazil. We recorded data from 23 groups of jays, ranging from 2 to 15 individuals per group. Foraging jays were exposed to a simulated predator (rubber snake), and patches varied in local and landscape-scale complexity. Jays consumed less food and increased vigilance in the presence of a predator, with this effect amplified in more complex patches with dense canopy cover. Vigilance was directly influenced by canopy cover and forest type (managed vs. regenerated). These findings underscore the dependency of risk perception on habitat complexity across various scales, indicating that simplifying habitats may create a less fearful environment, thereby increasing prey vulnerability by diminishing antipredator behaviours.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmddm
Description of the data and file structure
We used a set of field-based giving-up density experiments to study risk perception of white-naped jays across 20 foraging patches in two semi-arid thorn forests in northeastern Brazil. We recorded data from 23 groups of jays, ranging from 2 to 15 individuals per group. Foraging jays were exposed to a simulated predator (rubber snake), and patches varied in local and landscape-scale complexity (estimated using images - MIG). Each excel file has the raw data for one set of GUD experiments (2015, 2018 and 2019). Gralhas_gud_21_check includes habitat complexity estimates for each foraging patch, which were obtained in 2015. Missing data represented as NA.
Files and variables
File: DATA-GUD_Beiriz.zip
Description:
Raw excel files – GUD experiments 2015,2018 and 2019
File: Gralhas_gud_21_check
Data collected at the Fazenda Experimental Vale do Curu and Fazenda Não Me Deixes in 2015 – CE - Brazil
Variable names:
- ref: foraging patch
- fazenda: study site (A1 = Fazenda Experimental Vale do Curu; A2= Fazenda Não Me Deixes)
- local: foraging patch
- tree: percentage of the foraging patch covered by trees
- bush: percentage of the foraging patch covered by bushes
- land: percentage of the foraging patch without trees, bushes or grass
- migall: Mean Information Gain estimated from all photographs taken at a foraging patch
- migside: Mean Information Gain estimated from photographs taken at each side of a foraging patch
- migtop: Mean Information Gain estimated from the canopy photograph of a foraging patch
- pred: presence or absence of a predator model at the foraging patch during experiment
- gud: giving-up density
- group: group size = maximal number of jays at a foraging patch during an experiment
- agress: number of aggressive interactions in a foraging patch during an experiment
- share: number of interactions when jays shared food during an experiment
- return: jays returned to the foraging patch after the presence of a predator model: 1 = yes; 0 = no
- treturn: time (seconds) after the presence of a predator model that jays took to return to the foraging patch
- vigil: time spent vigilant (seconds)
- tfeeder: time jays spent at the feeder (seconds)
- tsite: total time jays spent at the foraging site(seconds)
- propvigil: time spent vigilant/ total time jays spent at the foraging site(seconds)
File: gud_control
Data collected at Fazenda Experimental Vale do Curu in 2018
Variable names:
- id: foraging patch
- trial: day when the experiment was performed (four consecutive days: d1= first day; d2= second day; d3=third day; d4=fourth day)
- ngroup: maximal number of jays at a foraging patch during an experiment
- gud: giving-up density
- agress: number of aggressive interactions in a foraging patch during an experiment
- share: number of interactions when jays shared food during an experiment
File: pred_control
Data collected at Fazenda Experimental Vale do Curu in 2019
Variable names:
- id: foraging patch
- experiment: branch= a tree branch was used as a novel object at the foraging patch; free= no novel object was present at the foraging patch during the experiment; pred= a rubber rattlesnake was used as a novel object at the foraging patch during the experiment
- ngroup: maximal number of jays at a foraging patch during an experiment
- gud: giving-up density