DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dv41ns27d
title: Data from: Food-safety trade-offs drive dynamic behavioral antipredator responses among snowshoe hares

description: Prey adopt various antipredator responses to minimize the risk of
 predation; the fitness costs of antipredator responses can have emergent
 effects on the population dynamics of prey species. While the trade-off
 between food acquisition and predation avoidance has long been recognized
 in predicting antipredator responses, less attention has examined how the
 dynamics of the food-safety trade-off are driven by temporal variation in
 multiple risk factors under changing seasonal conditions. Here, we
 monitored foraging and vigilance behavior of a central prey species,
 snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus), at fine temporal scales over the winter
 with various types of predation risk, while also experimentally
 manipulating predation risk by attracting predators to foraging patches.
 Hares increased foraging and decreased vigilance over the winter, but
 hares under chronic risk decreased their antipredator efforts to a lesser
 degree, indicating that those individuals prioritized risk avoidance over
 food acquisition. Hares also decreased foraging and increased antipredator
 efforts in response to the temporal activity of predators and
 environmental cues of predation risk. However, the magnitude of the
 responses to the environmental cues was mediated by time of winter. While
 we did not detect a reactive response of hares to acute risk, we did find
 that hares exhibiting camouflage mismatch proactively increased vigilance.
 Overall, our results highlight the importance of species-specific traits
 and changing seasonal conditions in addition to temporal variation in
 multiple risk factors in predicting antipredator responses and the context
 dependence of risk effects.
description: Snowshoe hare foraging (by accelerometer collars) and vigilance
 data (by trail cameras) and predator detection data (by trail cameras)
 were collected in the Chequamegon National Forest Medford District
 (45.291° N, 90.517° W) in Wisconsin, USA, in winter 2022 and 2023. We
 obtained meteorological data including wind speed, cloud coverage and air
 temperature recorded every 20 minutes as a part of the Automated Surface
 Observing Systems (ASOS) at the nearest available weather station to the
 study area (located ~ 30 km away). Daily snow depth data were obtained
 from the nearest available weather station to the study area (located ~ 25
 km away).
description: # Data from: **Food-safety trade-offs drive dynamic behavioral
 antipredator responses among snowshoe hares**
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dv41ns27d](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dv41ns27d) ## Description of the data and file structure Data were collected in the Chequamegon National Forest Medford District (45.291° N, 90.517° W) in Wisconsin, USA, in winter 2022 and 2023. This dataset consists of 4 data files (two predator detection data files, snowshoe hare foraging data file and snowshoe hare vigilance data file) and 1 R code, which are listed below with descriptions of the individual data files and variables in them.  ### Files and variables #### File: Hare\_Night\_Vigilance\_JAE.csv **Description:** Hare night vigilance data ##### Variables “ID” = feeder ID, “patch” = patch ID, “trt” = treatment type of patch, “datetime” = date and time of detection (in CST), “date” = date, “sunrise” = sunrise time, “sunset” = sunset time, “dawn” = dawn time", “dusk” = dusk time, “tod” = time of day, “hu_time” = vigilance time over 1-minute window, “pwhite” = %white of hare, “gsnow” = %snow cover on ground, “mm” = whether hare is mismatched or not, “pred_pres” = presence of predator in spatiotemporal proximity, “primpred” = presence of primary predator in spatiotemporal proximity, “wind_km” = wind speed (km/h), “wind_time” = time of assigned wind speed, “wind_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and wind data (minutes), “temp_cel” = temperature (Celcius), “temp_time” = time of assigned temperature, “temp_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and temperature data (minutes), “cloud” = cloud coverage, “cloud_time” = time of assigned cloud coverage, “cloud_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and cloud coverage data (minutes), “moon” = fraction of moon illuminated, “clmoon” = lunar luminosity, “snow_cm” = daily snow depth (cm), “wday” = time of winter (number of days since Dec 1), “rtime” = date and time in radians, “rsunrise“ = time of sunrise in radians, “rsunset“ = time of sunset in radians, “avgtimes” = scaled datetime relative to average sunrise and sunset times, “radnight” = night hour (from sunset) in radians, “night” = night hour (from sunset) #### File: Predator\_Detections\_JAE.csv **Description:** Predator detection data from outside of the experimental patches ##### Variables “camera” = camera ID, “datetime” = date and time of detection (in CST), “species” = predator species, “date” = date, “sunrise” = sunrise time, “sunset” = sunset time, “dawn” = dawn time", “dusk” = dusk time, “tod” = time of day #### File: Patch\_Predator\_Detections\_JAE.csv **Description:** Predator detection data from inside of the experimental patches ##### Variables “Patch” = ID of experimental patch, “Camera” = camera ID, “Treatment” = treatment type of experimental patch (predator or control), “Species” = predator species, “datetime” = date and time of detection (in CST), “date” = date, “sunrise” = sunrise time, “sunset” = sunset time, “dawn” = dawn time", “dusk” = dusk time, “tod” = time of day #### File: R\_Code\_for\_Analysis\_JAE.R **Description:** R code for analysis #### File: Hare\_Night\_20min\_Foraging\_JAE.csv **Description:** Hare night foraging data ##### Variables “datetime” = date and time of detection (in CST), “date” = date, “sunrise” = sunrise time, “sunset” = sunset time, “dawn” = dawn time", “dusk” = dusk time, “tod” = time of day, “year” = year, “hare” = hare ID, “sex” = sex of hare, “fortime_20” = foraging time of hare over 20-min window, “wind_km” = wind speed (km/h), “wind_time” = time of assigned wind speed, “wind_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and wind data (minutes), “temp_cel” = temperature (Celcius), “temp_time” = time of assigned temperature, “temp_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and temperature data (minutes), “cloud” = cloud coverage, “cloud_time” = time of assigned cloud coverage, “cloud_timdif” = time difference between foraging data and cloud coverage data (minutes), “moon” = fraction of moon illuminated, “clmoon” = lunar luminosity, “snow_cm” = daily snow depth (cm), “wday” = time of winter (number of days since Dec 1), “rtime” = date and time in radians, “rsunrise“ = time of sunrise in radians, “rsunset“ = time of sunset in radians, “avgtimes” = scaled datetime relative to average sunrise and sunset times, “radnight” = night hour (from sunset) in radians, “night” = night hour (from sunset) ## Code/software Microsoft Excel and R are needed to open these data files, and required R packages for the analysis are listed in the R code file. ## Access information Data was derived from the following sources: * Meteorological data including wind speed, cloud coverage and air temperature (recorded every 20 minutes) from the Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS) at the nearest available weather station to the study area (located ~ 30 km away). * Daily snow depth data from the nearest available weather station to the study area (located ~ 25 km away).