%0 Journal Article
%T Behavioural compatibility, not fear, best predicts the looking patterns of chacma baboons.
%A Allan ATL
%A LaBarge LR
%A Bailey AL
%A Jones B
%A Mason Z
%A Pinfield T
%A Schröder F
%A Whitaker A
%A White AF
%A Wilkinson H
%A Hill RA
%J Commun Biol
%V 7
%N 1
%D 2024 Aug 12
%M 39134612
%F 6.548
%R 10.1038/s42003-024-06657-w
%X Animal vigilance is often investigated under a narrow set of scenarios, but this approach may overestimate its contribution to animal lives. A solution may be to sample all looking behaviours and investigate numerous competing hypotheses in a single analysis. In this study, using a wild group of habituated chacma baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) as a model system, we implemented a framework for predicting the key drivers of looking by comparing the strength of a full array of biological hypotheses. This included methods for defining individual-specific social threat environments, quantifying individual tolerance to human observers, and incorporating predator resource selection functions. Although we found evidence supporting reactionary and within-group (social) vigilance hypotheses, risk factors did not predict looking with the greatest precision, suggesting vigilance was not a major component of the animals' behavioural patterns generally. Instead, whilst some behaviours constrain opportunities for looking, many shared compatibility with looking, alleviating the pressure to be pre-emptively vigilant for threats. Exploring looking patterns in a thorough multi-hypothesis framework should be feasible across a range of taxa, offering new insights into animal behaviour that could alter our concepts of fear ecology.