Foraging under predation risk in the wild guinea pig Cavia aperea

Four hypotheses about the foraging-antipredation behavioural conflict using herbivorous rodents Cavia aperea were tested: (a) shorter residence times and (b) greater scanning rates, are expected in foraging areas progressively more distant from cover, because foraging at greater distances from cover would increment predation risk; as group foraging would facilitate predator detection, (c) shorter residence times and (d) greater scanning rates, are expected when cavies are alone than when they are in foraging groups. Over a total of 123 complete foraging bout observations, cavies always foraged at less than four m from the cover