Cooperative defence of female chamois successfully deters an eagle attack
2015
Scornavacca, Davide | Brunetti, Claudia
In mountain ungulates, antipredator behaviour is one of the main constraints on foraging behaviour and habitat selection, especially when newborn, vulnerable offspring are present. Golden eagles have been known to prey on ungulates successfully, but predation may be relatively rare on chamois. Here, we report an unsuccessful predation attempt by a golden eagle on a kid of Apennine chamois. The kid was grazing in a female kid mixed herd, and the attack by the eagle was deterred by cooperative defence of females. Chamois are a social species: defending other females’ fawns may be consistent with the importance of cooperative maternal behaviour in kin groups.
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