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                  <text>The research in this publication was partially or fully funded by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Dan Prenzlow, Director, Colorado Parks and Wildlife • Parks and Wildlife Commission: Marvin McDaniel, Chair • Carrie Besnette Hauser, Vice-Chair
Marie Haskett, Secretary • Taishya Adams • Betsy Blecha • Charles Garcia • Dallas May • Duke Phillips, IV • Luke B. Schafer • James Jay Tutchton • Eden Vardy

�Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published September 11, 2014

Behavioral
Ecology

The official journal of the

ISBE

International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Behavioral Ecology (2014), 00(00), 1–8. doi:10.1093/beheco/aru158

Original Article

Landscape and anthropogenic features
influence the use of auditory vigilance by
mule deer

Received 20 July 2014; revised 29 July 2014; accepted 11 August 2014.

While visual forms of vigilance behavior and their relationship with predation risk have been broadly examined, animals also employ
other vigilance modalities such as auditory vigilance by listening for the acoustic cues of predators. Similar to the tradeoffs associated with visual vigilance, auditory behavior potentially structures the energy budgets and behavior of animals. The cryptic nature
of auditory vigilance makes it difficult to study, but on-animal acoustical monitoring has rapidly advanced our ability to investigate
behaviors and conditions related to sound. We utilized this technique to investigate the ways external stimuli in an active natural gas
development field affect periodic pausing by mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) within bouts of rumination-based mastication. To better
understand the ecological properties that structure this behavior, we investigate spatial and temporal factors related to these pauses
to determine if results are consistent with our hypothesis that pausing is used for auditory vigilance. We found that deer paused more
when in forested cover and at night, where visual vigilance was likely to be less effective. Additionally, deer paused more in areas of
moderate background sound levels, though responses to anthropogenic features were less clear. Our results suggest that pauses during rumination represent a form of auditory vigilance that is responsive to landscape variables. Further exploration of this behavior can
facilitate a more holistic understanding of risk perception and the costs associated with vigilance behavior.
Key words: acoustic ecology, odocoileus hemionus, vigilance, mule deer

Introduction
Vigilance is an important behavioral adaptation allowing early
detection and evasion of predators, thereby increasing survival
(Lind 2005). Vigilance manifests in several ways including neural
mechanisms, behavioral strategies, and social strategies (Dimond
and Lazarus 1974). Research on behavioral vigilance strategies
has predominantly focused on the visual forms of vigilance behavior, such as scanning, alert behavior, or heightened awareness,
which have been well documented across a wide range of animal
taxa (Lima 1987; Quenette 1990; Frid 1997; Fortin et al. 2004).
However, animals also employ other sensory cues such as smell
(Muller-Schwarze 1994) or auditory vigilance by listening for the
Address correspondence to E. Lynch. E-mail: emma.lynch@colostate.edu.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society
for Behavioral Ecology 2014.

acoustic cues of predators (Barber et al. 2010), or the alarm calls
of conspecifics (Randall and Rogovin 2002; Thompson and Hare
2010; Hare and Warkentin 2012). Such behavioral strategies may
be particularly valuable when environmental conditions preclude
the use of sight or for species where visual acuity is low.
The time invested in vigilance is considered a tradeoff to time
invested in foraging, as the act of feeding is often incompatible with
predator detection (Lima and Dill 1990). Foraging is expected to
detract from the visual detection of predators, and it creates incidental noise that masks acoustic cues necessary for the auditory
detection of predators (Molinari-Jobin et al. 2004). Thus, prey species are expected to modulate their investment in vigilance (both
visual and auditory) with varying levels of predation risk in order to
service metabolic requirements (maintain energy intake) while also
evading predation (Brown 1999; Brown et al. 1999).

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Emma Lynch,a Joseph M. Northrup,b Megan F. McKenna,c Charles R. Anderson Jr,d
Lisa Angeloni,a,e and George Wittemyera,b
aGraduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 1474 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins,
CO 80523, USA, bDepartment of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University,
1474 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA, cNatural Sounds and Night Skies Division,
National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80525, USA, dMammals Research Section,
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 317 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA and eDepartment of
Biology, Colorado State University, 1878 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

�Behavioral Ecology

Page 2 of 8

autonomically engages the stapedius reflex, which reduces the sensitivity of the ear by damping the transmission of vibrations through
the incus–malleus–stapes complex (Pang and Guinan 1997). This
attenuation of acoustic signals inhibits an animal’s ability to survey
the acoustic environment. However, in addition to serving a role
in auditory surveillance, pauses during mastication also may reflect
processes unrelated to listening, including physiological functions
(e.g., the movement of ingesta, gut processing time, or jaw muscle
relief), though pauses as defined in this study are bounded by and
exclude regurgitation and swallowing. We assume physiological processes such as mastication and rumination would occur in a random pattern across the landscape, as the available forage species
during the winter season in this pinyon juniper range are of universally poor quality (Bartmann et al. 1982). Therefore, if pauses are
used for auditory vigilance, time invested in the behavior would be
expected to vary with exposure to stimuli and changes in landscape
properties, particularly those that influence perceived levels of risk
and that impede visual vigilance.
To investigate spatial and temporal structuring in pause behavior,
we conducted this study in the Piceance Basin area of northwestern
Colorado, a topographically diverse region with heterogeneous vegetative communities that was actively undergoing natural gas production and extraction. This type of development has been shown
to affect behavior in a range of ungulates (Northrup and Wittemyer
2013) and elicit changes in mule deer behavior consistent with
an anti-predator response (Sawyer et al. 2006) and thus may be
expected to cause an increase in their auditory vigilance. However,
the human landscape features related to energy development (i.e.,
roads, drilling well pads, producing well pads, and facilities such as
compressors) produce substantial noise, potentially masking other
acoustic signals, degrading the efficacy of auditory vigilance, and
ultimately causing a reduction in auditory vigilance. Additionally,
these disturbed areas may offer a certain level of shelter by deterring predatory species, thereby reducing perceived risk and the
use of auditory vigilance. Therefore, we examined the influence
of proximity to these features on the proportion of time spent
paused, our metric of auditory vigilance. We also assessed investment in pausing under conditions known to increase the perceived
predation risk of ungulates (Altendorf et al. 2001; Stankowich
2008; Laundré et al. 2010), such as the presence of visual barriers that inhibit visual detection of predators (Hopewell et al. 2005).
Specifically, we tested the predictions that pausing increased inside
forested areas (relative to open regions), in rugged terrain, during
nighttime hours (relative to daytime), and at closer distances to the
edge of forested cover.

METHODS
Study area
The study took place in the Piceance Basin of Northwestern
Colorado, in an area that serves as winter range for mule deer from
October through May. The area consists of both mixed mountain
shrub and pinyon-juniper woodlands at an elevation of approximately 2000 m. This landscape naturally provides topographical
relief and a diverse range of habitats, from dense cover to open,
exposed regions (Bartmann et al. 1992). The landscape is also
shaped by human activities associated with energy development,
largely in the form of road networks servicing natural gas wells that
are in varied phases of production or development. Human activity
levels are high in this area, with several wells and natural gas facilities running 24 h a day, 7 days a week.

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Investment in antipredator behaviors such as vigilance is
expected to vary with spatial changes in perceived predation risk,
often referred to as the “landscape of fear” (Brown et al. 1999;
Laundré et al. 2001; Laundré et al. 2010). Major landscape factors known to influence visual forms of vigilance behavior include
food density (Beauchamp 2009), whether habitat is open or closed
(Ebensperger and Hurtado 2005), distance to cover (Lima 1987),
and level of human disturbance (Li et al. 2011), but the relationship between these factors is not always straightforward (Quenette
1990). Human disturbance, in particular, can have differing effects
on risk perception and subsequently visual vigilance behavior,
increasing perceived risk and scanning when it represents a form of
predation risk (Frid and Dill 2002), or reducing perceived risk when
it provides a spatial refuge from predators that avoid human activity
(Berger 2007, Muhly et al. 2011; Rogala et al. 2011). However, little
is known about the effect of landscape variables and human disturbance on auditory vigilance, or how this behavior may interact with
visual vigilance to structure behavioral responses to predation risk.
Employment of auditory vigilance may be coupled with visual vigilance, or these behaviors may trade off in relation to characteristics
that make one or the other more effective (e.g., auditory vigilance
may be prevalent where landscape characteristics preclude sight).
In the case of a trade-off between auditory and visual vigilance,
it is possible that the availability of visual cues themselves could
impact the propensity to listen in addition to landscape features and
acoustic stimuli. With respect to human activity, auditory vigilance
may be affected in ways similar to visual vigilance, where animals
potentially increase investment if an increase in risk is perceived;
alternatively, human activity could reduce perceived risk by providing refuge from predators. Furthermore, anthropogenic noise could
render auditory vigilance ineffective by masking sounds of interest,
causing a decrease in its use.
While there is extensive evidence that animals can hear and
respond to the sounds of predators and conspecific alarm cues,
studies that directly quantify investment in listening for predator cues are largely absent from the literature, perhaps because
of the difficulty in observing listening behavior. We overcome this
impediment through the use of recently developed acoustic recording collars (Lynch et al. 2013), applying this technology to evaluate the potential role of auditory vigilance for mule deer (Odocoileus
hemionus). The mule deer is a prey species that is known to use vigilance as a form of antipredator behavior (Geist 1981; Altendorf
et al. 2001; Lynch et al. 2013). The visual acuity of mule deer is
well established, and potential dangers are often identified visually
before they are close enough to be a concern (Geist 1981; MullerSchwarze 1994; VerCauteren and Pipas 2003). However, mule
deer spend up to 60% of their time resting (often in cover; Kie
et al. 1991), requiring the use of other keen senses such as hearing to detect approaching animals (Muller-Schwarze 1994) and
other changes in the environment. In fact, both the morphology
and behavior of mule deer, including their oversized pinnae that
amplify sounds (Calford and Pettigrew 1984), their sensitivity to
wide ranging signals (250 Hz to 30 kHz, (Geist 1981), and their
ability to detect animals as far away as 600 m in any direction using
a combination of hearing, olfaction, and sight (Geist 1981); suggest
that acoustic signals play important roles in their sensory ecology
(Lingle et al. 2007; Teichroeb et al. 2013).
Mule deer periodically pause during rumination while masticating ingesta, and this behavior appears to be used for auditory
vigilance (Lynch et al. 2013). In addition to increasing sound levels that could mask detection of auditory cues, the act of chewing

�Lynch et al. • Auditory vigilance in mule deer

Page 3 of 8

Acoustic data collection

Detection of auditory vigilance behavior

Frequency (Hz)

Previous research revealed that mule deer frequently pause during
mastication bouts, creating brief periods of relative quiet that would
allow for auditory vigilance (Lynch et al. 2013). Mastication bouts
are part of the rumination process during which deer are stationary
and are regurgitating and breaking down ingesta. For the purpose
of this study, bouts were defined as continuous periods of mastication, bounded by continuous periods of other behaviors such as
browsing or walking. Pauses during bouts occurred periodically,
typically bounded by swallowing and regurgitation, but it should
be noted that we could not acoustically identify any other digestive
5000
2500
1250
630
315
160
80
40
20
:10

:05

-8

-2

4

:15

10

16

:20

22

:25

28

:30
Time (min)

:35

34
40
46
Sound Pressure Level (dB)

:40

52

:45

58

64

:50

70

:55

76

82

87

Figure 1
Hour-long spectrogram of mule deer behavior. High sound pressure levels are indicated by darker shades, low sound pressure levels are indicated by lighter
shades. Two mastication bouts are distinguishable from 01 to 33 min, and again from 51 to 59 min as areas of higher sound levels (as bounded by arrows).
Pauses are located within each bout, and are represented by lighter shaded vertical stripes of varying width. Between mastication bouts, the deer was
stationary, intermittently inhaling, exhaling, and eructating. The dark horizontal stripe seen throughout the hour at 80 Hz corresponds to the sound of
mechanized equipment (such as a generator or compressor station).

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Ten wild adult female mule deer (aged 4.5–11.5 years) were randomly selected from a multi-year global positioning system (GPS)
radio tracking study (Lendrum et al. 2012, 2013) and wore collarmounted acoustic recording devices for approximately 2 weeks
during the winter to track audible behaviors and ambient environmental sounds (Lynch et al. 2013). The microphones contained
within the acoustic recording collars were mounted such that they
were positioned against the throats of the deer. This positioning,
along with their sensitivity, allowed capture of the sounds of footfalls, vocalizations, foraging, rumination (regurgitation, mastication,
and swallowing), and even respirations when the deer were otherwise inactive. Prior to collar deployment, the technique was validated on captive individuals. During this testing period, we verified,
through comparison of direct observations and concurrent audio
files, that the collars clearly documented sounds produced by deer.
During the study period, deer also wore GPS radio collars to track
their movements. Protocol and procedures employed for capture
were reviewed and approved under the Colorado State University
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol
10-2350A. Once recovered, the acoustic recording devices provided
continuous date-time stamped MPEG-2 Audio Layer III recordings.
Following protocols detailed in Mennitt and Fristrup (2012), the
acoustic recording collar was calibrated using a Type-1 (American
National Standards Institute [ANSI] S 1.4-1983 [R 2006]) sound
level meter (Larson Davis 831, Larson Davis, Depew, NY). This
calibration was necessary to acquire broadband background sound
levels from the collar.

activity during the pauses. The pauses analyzed in this study were
completely distinct from the swallowing and regurgitation portions
of the mastication process (see electronic Supplementary Material
for a recording of the focal behavior).
Periods of mastication during rumination and the pauses
included within them were identified by examining recorded acoustic data, displayed as spectrograms with 1-s, one-third octave band
resolution using the Sound Pressure Level Annotation Tool (U.S.
National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division,
Fort Collins, CO). In the spectrograms, these periods were visually
distinct from other behaviors (Figure 1), verified aurally, and then
annotated manually. During these mastication bouts, deer were typically stationary (as indicated by audio and GPS data), and steadily
processing ingesta (as indicated by acoustic data).
Using custom software developed in Matlab (Mathworks
v. 2012b, Natick, MA), the waveforms of manually selected mastication bouts, described above, were further processed to automatically detect the start and end of pauses. The pause detector
software worked on the time series data by first performing a
full-wave rectification of the acoustic signal, essentially transforming the amplitude values to positive numbers. Then, the detector stepped through the data at 45-s intervals marking pauses as
instances where levels remained below a 14th percentile threshold for a minimum of 1.4 s (selection of optimal automatic pause
detection parameters are described in electronic Supplementary
Material). This dynamic threshold approach was selected because
it promoted consistent detection across varying signal levels from
individual collars. Figure 2 displays a detected pause, marked on
the original signal (a) and the rectified signal (b).
To identify all pauses, we applied a set of parameter values
to all mastication bouts from all individual deer (see electronic
Supplementary Material). Relevant metrics for each pause such as
begin time, end time, and duration were logged, and a 1-s one-third
octave wideband sound pressure level (SPL) extracted from the
center of each pause event was used to represent the background
ambient SPL during the pause. Anthropogenic noise tends to occur
on the lower end of the frequency spectrum (&lt;2 kHz) (Francis et al.
2009; Barber et al. 2010), so to better assess the potential impacts
of anthropogenic sounds on pause length, we calculated a truncated wideband SPL (dBT) that focused on low frequency sound
(20–1250 Hz) in addition to the dBW wideband SPL (25–6300 Hz).

�Behavioral Ecology

Page 4 of 8

(a)

(b)

1

Signal
Threshold
Pause Begin
Pause End

1400

0.8
0.6

1200

0.4
1000
Amplitude

Amplitude

0.2
0
−0.2

800
600

−0.4
−0.6

400

−0.8

200
22
Time (seconds)

33

11

22
Time (seconds)

33

Figure 2
Example of automatic pause detection. Begin (*) and end (○) times of a single pause are marked in the original time series data (a) and on the rectified signal
(b). Detection percentile threshold is marked by dotted line on the right panel. Detector was triggered to mark a pause when the signal dropped below this
percentile for at least 1.4 s. The signal before and after the pause represents chewing during mastication.

The detector code and detailed information on detector performance are provided in electronic Supplementary Material.

Modeling natural and anthropogenic effects
To examine factors influencing variation in pause characteristics,
we fit models of pause behavior during rumination in a Bayesian
hierarchical framework. Our dependent variable was the proportion of the mastication bout spent paused (calculated as the sum
of the duration of all pauses within a bout divided by the duration of the bout to standardize for bout length). For this variable,
we fit beta regression models with intercepts varying by individual
to account for the nested structure of the data (multiple bouts for
each individual). The model structure is provided in electronic
Supplementary Material.
To extract landscape covariates for each mastication bout, we
matched the time of the midpoint of each mastication bout to
the GPS location for that deer that was closest in time. Deer locations were taken every 30 min using a GPS collar (Model G30C,
Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, MN). Where GPS fix failure
did not make this possible, the location closest in time to the start
or end of the bout was assigned to the bout if the location was
taken within 1 h of the bout midpoint. Bouts not associated with a
successful GPS fix according to this definition were dropped from
the analysis. Consecutive bouts that occurred in spatially overlapping and temporally adjacent locations were combined into a single
bout, assuming the short period of activity by the deer (e.g., brief
movements and foraging) separating the bouts did not merit independent treatment. All covariates, described below, were extracted
using the “raster” package (Hijmans and van Etten 2013) in the R
statistical software version 3.0.1 (R Core Team 2013).
The natural covariates expected to influence auditory vigilance
(Table 1) included the distance of the deer to the edge of forested
land cover (Edge), a binary covariate for whether it was located
in forested (0) or open (1) land cover (Open), a terrain ruggedness
index measuring the change in slope between the cell of interest
and those surrounding it (TR), and a binary covariate for whether

the bout occurred during the day (0) or between sunset and sunrise
(1) (Night). Each of the spatial data layers was displayed with 30 m
resolution. These factors were selected because they were expected
to influence perceived predation risk and the ability to detect predators visually by influencing the line of sight distance. The anthropogenic factors expected to influence auditory vigilance (Table 1)
included distance to the center of the nearest well pad with wells
that were being actively drilled (D drill), distance to the center of
the nearest well pad with only wells that were producing gas (D
prod), distance to the center of the nearest natural gas facility (D
fac), distance to the nearest road (D rd), and median wideband
sound level (dBW.med) during the pause. These anthropogenic factors were selected because they might increase perceived predation
risk (by presenting a disturbance), or they might decrease perceived
predation risk (by deterring predators); further, sound levels have
the potential to influence the ability to detect predators aurally.
Following definitions of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission, a well pad was considered a drilling well pad between
the time that drilling began until product began to be extracted;
it was considered a producing well pad once product began to be
extracted. For well pads on which multiple wells existed, a pad was
considered a drilling pad as long as at least one well was being
drilled. A natural gas facility was defined as either a gas plant or
compressor station.
After all covariates were extracted, we fit 4 separate models to
the dependent variable (Table 2). All models contained all covariates described above, but the structure of each was organized to
explore the functional form (linear vs. non-linear) of the anthropogenic covariates. Interaction effects (between night and landcover, and between night and sound level) were considered, but
no evidence for interaction effects was found (i.e., coefficients for
interaction terms were not different from 0). The 4 models without
interaction terms were compared using deviance information criteria (DIC; Spiegelhalter et al. 2002; but as formulated by Plummer
2012), with the best fit model used to reveal which factors were
significant in predicting proportion of the mastication bout spent
paused. Though we calculated multiple measures of background

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11

�Lynch et al. • Auditory vigilance in mule deer

Page 5 of 8

Table 1
Names, descriptions, and predicted effect (+/− indicates possible influence in either direction; see explanation in Introduction
section) on the proportion of bout paused for covariates used in Bayesian hierarchical models

Natural covariates
Edge
Open
TR
Night
Anthropogenic covariates
D prod
D drill
D fac
D rd
dbW.med

Description

Predicted effect

Distance to the edge of forested land covera
Binary covariate for being in forested land cover (0) or not (1)a
Terrain ruggedness index–measure of change in slope between the cell of interest
and those surrounding itb
Binary covariate for whether the bout was between sunsxet and sunrise (1) or not (0)c

−
−
+

padd

Distance to center of producing well
Distance to center of drilling well padd
Distance to center of natural gas facilitye
Distance to nearest roadf
Median wideband sound pressure level (25–6300 Hz)g

+
+/−
+/−
+/−
+/−
+/−

Table 2
Model structure and deviance information criteria (DIC) values for models predicting the proportion of a mastication bout during
which a deer was silent (paused)
Model

Structure

DIC

1
2
3
4

Edge + Open + TR + Night + log(D prod) + log(D drill) + log(D fac) + log(D rd) + dbW.med + dbW.med2
Edge + Open + TR + Night + D prod + D drill + D fac + D rd + dbW.med + dbW.med2
Edge + Open + TR + Night + D prod + D drill + D fac + D rd + dbW.med
Edge + Open + TR + Night + D prod + D prod2 + D drill + D drill2 + D fac + D fac2 + D rd + D rd2 + dbW.med + dbW.med2

−1884
−1882
−1882
−1878

sound level, we only report on models fit with the median dBW values because they provided a better fit (lower DIC) than models with
mean dBW, mean dBT, and median dBT values (assessed separately
from the 4 presented models). All models were fit in the R statistical
software (R Core Team 2013) using the “rjags” package (Plummer
2013). We ran 2 chains for 8 000 000 iterations, discarding the first
4 000 000 as burn-in and thinning the chains to every 10th sample.
We used starting values for all parameters that were expected to
be overdispersed relative to the posterior distributions and assessed
convergence to the posterior distribution using the Gelman–Rubin
diagnostic (Gelman and Rubin 1992) and by examining trace plots
of the resulting chains.

RESULTS
The automatic acoustic detector yielded 53 856 pause detections
(with a median of 86.0 pauses per bout per individual, interquartile range [IQR] lower and upper: 42.0, 133.3) during 500 mastication bouts. The median duration of a mastication bout was 1.38 h
(IQR: 0.57, 2.21). The median pause duration was 2.29 s (IQR:
1.79, 2.90), though a number of long pauses (up to 6.3 s) were also
noted in the dataset. A median of 3.8% (IQR: 3.4%, 4.4%) of the
time spent masticating was allocated to pausing.
All models converged to the posterior distribution (Gelman–
Rubin diagnostic for all parameters &lt; 1.1; Gelman and Rubin
1992). Aside from Model 4 (Table 2), which had quadratic terms
on all distance and sound covariates, all models had similar DIC

values, indicating little difference among models (Table 2). Because
it provided the best fit for the data according to DIC, we report
coefficients for each covariate from Model 1 (Table 3), which were
similar to and representative of the other models. As predicted,
after accounting for other covariates, deer paused for a greater proportion of bouts during the night than during the day (Figure 3),
and for smaller proportions of bouts when in open areas (Figure 3).
Contrary to predictions, deer paused for a greater proportion of
bouts when they were further from natural gas facilities (Table 3).
Lastly, there was a quadratic relationship between dBW and pause
behavior, whereby deer paused for a greater proportion of bouts
in areas of intermediate sound level (Figure 4). The other covariates analyzed, such as distance to a road, distance to producing and
drilling well pads, terrain ruggedness index and distance to the edge
of forested land cover, were not significant predictors in models
(&lt;95% of posterior distribution on one side of 0; Table 3).

Discussion
Although vigilance is an important antipredator strategy, the mechanisms driving the use of auditory vigilance behavior are not well
studied. Here, we present one of the first detailed assessments of
this potentially critical behavior, and demonstrate how acoustic
technology can change what we understand about how the landscape influences behavioral decision making. Our results demonstrated that pauses during mastication bouts were structured
by landscape properties that are expected to influence perceived

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Sources for covariates are indicated in the following footnotes.
aColorado Vegetation Classification Project (http://ndis.nrel.colostate.edu/coveg/)
bCalculated from digital elevation model obtained from United States Geological Survey seamless data warehouse (http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html).
cThe United States Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php).
dColorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (http://cogcc.state.co.us/).
eObtained via ground truthing.
fUnited States Geological Survey seamless data warehouse (http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html) and validated through ground truthing.
gCalculated from on-deer recording devices.

�Behavioral Ecology

Table 3
Representative model (Model 1) for the proportion of bout
paused with median coefficient values and 95% credible
intervals (CI) for each covariate
Covariate

Median coefficient

95% CI

Edge
Open
TR
Night
log(D drill)
log(D fac)
log(D rds)
log(D prod)
dbW.med
dbW.med2

0.035
−0.119
0
0.377
−0.009
0.194
0.067
−0.03
0.079
−0.055

−0.022
−0.23
−0.002
0.272
−0.1
0.097
0.006
−0.1
−0.032
−0.104

0.09
−0.009
0.002
0.483
0.083
0.292
0.13
0.042
0.191
−0.006

50

60
Median dbW

70

80

0.06

0.08

0.10

Figure 4
Predicted proportion of bout paused by median dBW (25–6300 Hz) values
(solid line) with 95% credible interval (dotted lines). Predicted proportion is
standardized by bout length.

0.04

Predicted proportion of bout paused

40

Day

Night

Figure 3
The median and interquartile range (IQR) for predicted proportion of bout
paused for day and night time periods (derived from fitted model), where
predicted proportion is standardized by bout length. Dashed lines extend to
95% credible interval. Forested landcover is represented by white boxes and
open areas are represented by gray boxes.

risk and impede visual vigilance. Consistent with predictions, we
found that deer paused more extensively where concealment cover
abounded and thus where visual vigilance was likely to be less
effective. In addition, deer allocated a larger proportion of time
to pausing during mastication bouts at night, implying that auditory vigilance is an important defense mechanism when darkness
reduces the effectiveness of visual scanning. Previous research on
vigilance behavior in wild species (Lima 1987; Altendorf et al. 2001;
Lind 2010) has overlooked the importance of auditory vigilance,
potentially because this behavior is not easily seen during behavioral observations and may be obscured when it is predominantly
employed. Our results suggest that exploring this behavior allows
deeper understanding of an animal’s perception of risk and the
costs associated with vigilance behavior. Furthermore, identification
of landscape characteristics associated with increased auditory vigilance provides an additional way to behaviorally identify properties

that can augment more typical assessments of perceived predation
risk (e.g., giving up densities or measures of visual vigilance).
It is important to note that our findings do not preclude additional explanations for pausing behavior; for example, pausing may
allow deer to be quiet to reduce detection when predators are near
or it may be involved in physiological processes (though we note
that pauses in our analysis excluded any audible activity including
swallowing and regurgitation). As such, pausing during mastication likely serves multiple, simultaneous purposes. It is notable that
in our analysis, the role of auditory vigilance, as evident from the
increase in pausing at night and in cover, was strong enough to
overcome the confounding influence of other modalities of pausing.
Our pause identification procedure excluded all pauses less than
1.4 s in length, which may have reduced the influence of strictly
biophysical activity from the behaviorally oriented listening pauses.
Anecdotally, we noted that extended pauses were influenced by ecological stimuli (e.g., coyote calls occurred in conjunction with longer
pauses), suggesting that longer pauses play a greater role in listening. A more efficient procedure for separating biophysical activity
from behaviorally motivated pause categories would provide stronger inference and merits further investigation. For instance, future
studies could experimentally manipulate perceived predation risk or
disturbance in a controlled setting to identify the extent to which
pauses are adjusted for listening.
One of the negative consequences of increasing vigilance due
to perceived risk is time taken away from other fitness enhancing
behaviors (Frid and Dill 2002; Lind 2005). Therefore, an increase in
auditory vigilance could result in a reduction in time spent invested
in other behaviors. It has been argued that vigilance can be costfree when anti-predator vigilance is conducted during spare time
(Illius and Fitzgibbon 1994), such as the interval of time between
cropping and bringing a mouthful of forage fully into the mouth
(Blanchard and Fritz 2007). However, unlike visual scanning, auditory vigilance cannot be conducted during the act of chewing, both
because the sound of chewing itself masks auditory cues of interest in certain frequency bands, and because chewing triggers the

Downloaded from http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/ at colostateuniv on April 19, 2016

0.12

0.03

Significance is indicated with bold font.

Predicted proportion of bout paused
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08

Page 6 of 8

�Lynch et al. • Auditory vigilance in mule deer

Supplementary Material
Supplementary material can be found at http://www.beheco.
oxfordjournals.org/

Funding
This research was supported by Colorado Parks and Wildlife
(CPW), U.S. National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night
Skies Division, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, ExxonMobil
Production/XTO Energy, WPX Energy, EnCana Corporation,
the Mule Deer Foundation, the Colorado Mule Deer Association,
Safari Club International, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration,
Marathon Oil Corporation, Shell Exploration and Production, the
Colorado State Severance Tax Fund, the Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission, and Piceance Basin land owners.
The authors thank L. Wolfe, C. Bishop, D. Finley (CPW) and numerous
field technicians for capture expertise and field assistance, and Quicksilver
Air, Inc. and Larry Gepfert (CPW pilot) for assisting with deer captures.
Finally, the authors thank the Editor, Behavioral Ecology, as well as 2 anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.

Ethical Standards: Protocol and procedures employed for capture were
reviewed and approved under the Colorado State University Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol 10-2350A.
Handling editor: Alison Bell

References
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stapedius reflex, an involuntary muscular contraction which limits
the transmission of acoustic signals (Pang and Guinan 1997). This
trade off is emphasized by a study that reported 58% of roe deer
were preyed upon whilst ruminating, perhaps because the act of
chewing hindered the deer’s ability to hear approaching predators
(Molinari-Jobin et al. 2004). As such, trade-offs between noiseproducing behaviors and auditory vigilance may be as pertinent
to animal ecology and behavior as other, more commonly studied
behaviors.
In summary, the investigation of auditory vigilance provides
novel insight to animal time budgets and perceptions of risk, augmenting the more frequently studied visual vigilance behaviors,
and offers a new lens through which to view the landscape of fear.
Mule deer allocated a substantial amount of time to pausing in the
midst of mastication bouts during the study period, with both natural and anthropogenic landscape features differentially impacting
the use of this behavior. However, further research is necessary to
understand the relationship between vigilance modalities (visual,
olfactory, and auditory), and how these different behaviors compliment, tradeoff, or supersede one another. Such studies might
employ either simultaneous visual and auditory inspection of
vigilance behavior, or accelerometry or magnetometry sensors (to
gather fine scale information about head movements and orientations) to better understand interactions between these behaviors
and their landscape context. Studies assessing different contexts
where these behaviors are utilized and their relative roles across
species also would further increase understanding. Additional
research is also needed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between behavioral measures of vigilance, concomitant
brain and sensory processing requirements, and the direct fitness
consequences of investment in this activity, a critical component
to determine the cost-benefit ratio of these behaviors. Finally,
although the bout-level data acquired from this study did not allow
us to investigate the immediate factors that influenced individual
pauses, we identified a number of long pauses that closely followed
significant acoustic events (such as coyote calls or vehicles passing
nearby). The biologic import of these hyper-vigilant events is likely
significant, and points to an exciting new approach for identifying
specific predator-prey interactions.

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Behavioral Ecology

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                  <text>1
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ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
A. Selection of parameters for pause detection
To determine the automatic detection criteria for time interval, percentile threshold and
minimum pause duration, we evaluated the performance of 5 different combinations of values for
their ability to correctly identify pauses. After implementation of each combination, correctly
assigned pauses, false positives and missed pauses were identified visually within the first and
last mastication bout of the two-week study period for each individual. We selected the
combination of values that resulted in the lowest percentage of false positives and a high
percentage of correct detections. The selected parameters were minimum pause length = 1.4
seconds, time interval = 45 seconds, and 14th percentile threshold (Table 1), which resulted in a
false positive rate of 2.025%. We applied these parameter values to all mastication bouts from all
individual deer. Relevant metrics for each pause such as begin time, end time, and duration were
logged (note that pauses shorter than 1.4 seconds were excluded). Moreover, a 1-second onethird octave wideband sound pressure level (SPL), extracted from the center of each pause event
was used to represent the background ambient sound pressure level during the pause.
Anthropogenic noise tends to occur on the lower end of the frequency spectrum (&lt;2 kHz)
(Francis et al. 2009; Barber et al. 2010). So, to better assess the potential impacts of
anthropogenic sounds on pause length, we calculated a truncated wideband SPL (dBT) that
focused on low frequency sound (20 Hz – 1250 Hz) in addition to the dBW wideband SPL (25
Hz – 6300 Hz).
Table S1. Evaluation of detector performance, with parameter sets listed in the sequence tested.
The bolded parameter set was utilized in the analysis because it minimized false detections.
Percentile
Minimum pause
Time
threshold
duration (s)
interval(s)
% Correct
% False
% Missed
16
0.8
30
70.393
20.921
8.686
11
0.8
30
71.914
8.587
19.499
14
1.4
45
76.709
2.025
21.266
12
1.1
60
78.241
5.787
15.972
12
1.1
45
78.623
6.643
14.734
B. Code for beta regression model (JAGS)
model{
#priors
mu.b0~dnorm(0,0.00001)
tau.b0~dgamma(0.001,001)
beta[1:n.beta]~dmnorm(mu.beta[], omega.beta[,])
# tau.eps~dgamma(0.001,0.001)
# sigma.eps&lt;-1/sqrt(tau.eps)
r~dunif(0,100)
#individual intercepts

�39
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for(j in 1:n.indiv){
b0[j]~dnorm(mu.b0, tau.b0)
}
#model
for(i in 1:length(y)){
log(lambda[i])&lt;-b0[indiv[i]] + beta[1]*x1[i] + beta[2]*x2[i] + beta[3]*x3[i] + beta[4]*x4[i] +
offset[i]
p[i]&lt;-r/(r+lambda[i])
y[i]~dnegbin(p[i],r)
}
}

�51
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C. Model outputs
Pause duration
Model 1
Covariate
Edge
Open
D prod
D prod^2
D drill
D drill^2
D fac
D fac^2
TR
D rd
D rd^2
dbW.med
dbW.med^2
Night

Median Coeff.
0.022243
-0.13082
-0.07797
0.045018
-0.00422
0.058304
0.251687
0.046768
0.000683
0.041298
-0.01139
0.034512
-0.0333
0.379152

Prob 0.257419
0.970566
0.92232
0.063904
0.521774
0.159119
0.000511
0.141828
0.28986
0.21755
0.680654
0.307808
0.85824
0

Prob +
0.742581
0.029434
0.07768
0.936096
0.478226
0.840881
0.999489
0.858173
0.71014
0.78245
0.319346
0.692193
0.14176
1

Model 2
Edge
Open
log(D prod)
log(D drill)
log(D fac)
TR
log(D rd)
dbW.med
dbW.med^2
Night

Median Coeff.
0.034631
-0.11933
-0.02959
-0.00886
0.19435
0.000452
0.067082
0.078662
-0.05472
0.37745

Prob 0.151781
0.962809
0.75582
0.564614
0.000458
0.355923
0.035625
0.123956
0.967096
0

Prob +
0.848219
0.037191
0.24418
0.435386
0.999543
0.644078
0.964375
0.876044
0.032904
1

Model 3
Edge
Open
D prod
D drill
D fac
TR
D rd
dbW.med
Night

Median Coeff.
0.025748
-0.10532
-0.02243
-9.6E-05
0.244615
0.000679
0.025445
0.00536
0.376781

Prob 0.220254
0.945793
0.688315
0.495956
0.000268
0.290155
0.27582
0.461314
0

Prob +
0.779746
0.054208
0.311685
0.504044
0.999733
0.709845
0.72418
0.538686
1

�Model 4
Edge
Open
D prod
D drill
D fac
TR
D rd
dbW.med
dbW.med^2
Night
53
54
55
56
57

Median Coeff.
0.024296
-0.12141
-0.01619
0.007259
0.24575
0.000719
0.023557
0.053858
-0.04827
0.383386

Prob 0.23062
0.966201
0.635313
0.459126
5.75E-05
0.278774
0.290991
0.215216
0.945503
0

Prob +
0.76938
0.033799
0.364688
0.540874
0.999943
0.721226
0.709009
0.784784
0.054498
1

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                  <text>% Uses binary file (created with Compile_SRCID_wav.m) to detect pauses within
% deer mastication bouts (pre-selected by E. Lynch)
%NOTES:
%(1) Must run Compile_SRCID_wav.m first to generate a binary file listing
%the times of all the mastication events for an individual deer (e.g.
%SRCID_RG15_events_221). Events file size exceeds that which can be uploaded (~32 GB),
%but can be made available upon request.
%(2)Works for a single deer and mastication bout, chosen by the user
%(3)Allows user to visualize/listen to each pause detected to verify
clear all; clc; close all
%% INITIAL CODE SET-UP FOR PAUSE DETECTION
Fs=44100;
%sampling frequency of the audio data
Percentile = 14; %sets the "trigger" threshold for pause detection
winL = 1.4*Fs; %Upper duration bound for potential pauses(in samples)
winU = 50*Fs; %Lower duration bound for potential pauses(in samples)
ee = 3 ;

%choose what binary file to analyze,
%which corresponds to an individual deer (1-10)
uu = 17;
%choose event number you want to examine
%(1-length of events for an individual deer)
pltwin = 45; %sets analysis window when evaluating pause detections
%(in seconds)
test = 2;
%if running the code in testing mode
plt = 2;
%if you want the graphics plotted as the code runs
saveplot = 1; %if you want to save the graphics as the code runs
%% PAUSE DETECTOR
%% NAVIGATE to location of events files
strdirs = uigetdir( 'C:\' , 'Pick folder with events files');
cd( strdirs );
elist = dir( '*events_*' ); %list of each event file in the directory
filenameE = char( elist.name );
llist = dir( '*length_*' ); %list of each length file
filenameL = char( llist.name );
display(['Processing ' filenameE(ee,:)])
%% GET the number of mastication events (This number is appended to the end of the file name)
if filenameE(ee,10) == '_'
%Datacheck for SRCID length or events file to allow for different deer name lengths (RG1 vs RG11)
numE = str2num( filenameE(ee,18:end) ); %#ok&lt;*ST2NM&gt;
elseif isnumeric( str2num( filenameE(ee,10) ))
%EDIT THIS w/ conditional statement for 18 or 19 length filenames
numE = str2num( filenameE(ee,19:end) );
else
display('Events or length filename has error')
end
file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

�%% READ in correct mastication event based on the start time of the event
% need to start at the correct location in the binary file, using the
% corresponding length file
len = dlmread(filenameL(ee,:)); %list of length of each event and starttime
fid = fopen(filenameE(ee,:),'r');
if uu == 1
DATA = fread(fid, len(uu,1),'single');
else
GoHere = sum(len(1:uu,1));
fseek(fid, GoHere, 'bof');
DATA= fread(fid, len(uu,1),'single');
end
%% RECTIFY the audio signal
numsamples = length(DATA);
intwindowtime = 1; %seconds
intwindowsize = intwindowtime*Fs;
halfintwindowsize = intwindowsize/2;
RDATA = zeros(1,numsamples); %sets up matrix to fill with rectified data
%initialize integral for one window length...
RDATA(1+halfintwindowsize) = sum(abs(DATA(1:1+intwindowsize)));
%...then add 1 sample and subtract last sample's contribution
% as move through waveform
for i = 2:numsamples-intwindowsize
RDATA(i+halfintwindowsize)= RDATA(i+halfintwindowsize - 1)-...
abs(DATA(i-1))+ abs(DATA(i+intwindowsize));
end
%% EXTRACT the lowest values (potential pauses) in the designated analysis window
% calculated as a proportion of the data
plotwin = 1:pltwin*Fs:length(DATA); % converts analysis window to samples
output = zeros (length(plotwin),6); % set up empty matrix to fill
output(:,1) = ee;
output(:,2) = uu;
for pp = 1: length(plotwin); % loop through each analysis window
if pp &lt; length(plotwin)
%GRABS the correct data and calculates the value what would trigger
% a pause detection based on previously set percentile
VALpctile = prctile (RDATA (plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)), Percentile);
%record the percentile used for this analysis window
output(pp,3) = VALpctile;
%converts data to zeros and ones based threshold values
% (VALpctile)
file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

�TDATA = RDATA (plotwin(pp): plotwin(pp+1));
array = zeros( size(TDATA) );%set up empty matrix to fill
for jj = 1 : length(TDATA) %
if TDATA(jj) &lt; VALpctile
array(jj) = 0; %YES, above VALpctile!
else
array(jj) = 1 ; %NO, below VALpctile!
end
end
%% PULL OUT "ISLANDS OF ZEROS"
% FOUND METHOD here:
% http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3274043/finding-islands-of-zeros-in-a-sequence
% First, find the starting indices, ending indices, and duration of each
% string of zeros using the functions DIFF and FIND:
% essentially, makes the start of a sequence of zeros -1, the end of a sequence
% 1, and all the rest zeros
tsig = array;
dsig = diff([1 tsig 1]);
%% CALCULATE the druation of each "potential pause"
startIndex = find( dsig &lt; 0);
endIndex = find( dsig &gt; 0)-1;
duration = endIndex - startIndex + 1;
%ONLY select pauses within the defined duration
stringIndex = (duration &lt;= winU &amp; duration &gt;= winL);
durationCut = duration(duration &lt;= winU &amp; duration &gt;= winL);
startIndex2 = startIndex(stringIndex);
endIndex2 = endIndex(stringIndex);
%% EVALUATE the pause(s) detected
scrsz = get(0,'ScreenSize');% set the resolution of the figure
if isempty(startIndex2)
display('NO PAUSES!')
fig1 = figure(1);
subplot(1,2,1) %original signal
% plots the signal
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)), 'color', [.7 .7 .7] );
% labeling axes
title('Original Signal');
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
subplot(1,2,2) %rectified signal
% plot the rectified signal
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), TDATA, 'color', [.7 .7 .7] );
hold on;
% plot the threshold line for this analysis window
plot(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)-1,repmat(VALpctile,(pltwin*Fs),1)','k-.');
% label axes, set legend
file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

�axis([plotwin(pp) plotwin(pp+1) 0 max(TDATA)-50]);
title('Rectified Signal');
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
set(fig1,'Position',[scrsz(1) scrsz(2) scrsz(3) scrsz(4)])
legend ('Rectified Signal','Threshold');
%% LISTEN to the data in the analysis window
reply = input('Do you want to play sound Y/N? ', 's');
dn = reply;
if dn == 'Y'
% plot the data
fig3 = figure(3);
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)), 'color', [.7 .7 .7] );
axis([plotwin(pp) plotwin(pp+1) -1 1]);
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ; %xlabel('samples (30 seconds of data)') ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
% play the sound
v = axis; y = [v(3),v(4)];
x1 = [min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)),min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1))];
% create the scrolling line for animation
hline1 = line(x1,y,'Color','r','LineWidth',2);
player = audioplayer(DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)),Fs);
play(player);
while isplaying(player)
x = [min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)),min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1))] + get(player,'CurrentSample');
set(hline1,'Xdata',x,'Ydata',y)
drawnow
end
end
else
display('Pauses detected!')
fig1 = figure(1);
subplot(1,2,1) %original signal
% plots the signal
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)), 'color', [.7 .7 .7] );
hold on;
ind = zeros(1, length(startIndex2));
% plots the start and end of the pauses
plot(startIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind, 'k*','MarkerSize',7);
plot(endIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind, 'ko','MarkerSize',6);
axis([plotwin(pp) plotwin(pp+1) -1 1]);
% labeling axes
title('Original Signal');
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
subplot(1,2,2) %rectified signal
% plot the rectified signal
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), TDATA, 'color', [.7 .7 .7] ); %
hold on;
% plot the threshold line for this analysis window
plot(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)-1,repmat(VALpctile,(pltwin*Fs),1)','k-.');
% plot the start and end of pauses
file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

�ind2 = repmat(VALpctile, length(startIndex2),1);
plot(startIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind2, 'k*','MarkerSize',7);
plot(endIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind2, 'ko','MarkerSize',6);
% label axes, set legend
axis([plotwin(pp) plotwin(pp+1) 0 max(TDATA)-50]);
title('Rectified Signal');
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
set(fig1,'Position',[scrsz(1) scrsz(2) scrsz(3) scrsz(4)])
legend ('Rectified Signal','Threshold','Pause Begin','Pause End');
%% LISTEN to the data in the analysis window
reply = input('Do you want to play sound Y/N? ', 's');
dn = reply;
if dn == 'Y'
% plot the data
fig3 = figure(3);
plot( plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1), DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)), 'color', [.7 .7 .7] );
hold on;
ind = zeros(1, length(startIndex2));
plot(startIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind, 'k*'); plot(endIndex2+plotwin(pp),ind, 'r*');
axis([plotwin(pp) plotwin(pp+1) -1 1]);
xlabel(['Samples (' num2str(pltwin) ' seconds)']) ; %xlabel('samples (30 seconds of data)') ;
ylabel('Amplitude');
% play the sound
v = axis; y = [v(3),v(4)];
x1 = [min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)),min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1))];
% create the scrolling line for animation
hline1 = line(x1,y,'Color','r','LineWidth',2);
player = audioplayer(DATA(plotwin(pp):plotwin(pp+1)),Fs);
play(player);
while isplaying(player)
x = [min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1)),min(plotwin(pp):1:plotwin(pp+1))] + get(player,'CurrentSample');
set(hline1,'Xdata',x,'Ydata',y)
drawnow
end
end
end
%% CONTINUE with analyis
reply4 = (input ('Do you want to advance to the next analysis window [Y/N]?', 's'));
if reply4 == 'Y';
close all %CLOSE ALL FIGURE WINDOWS
clear x y v player hline1 array startIndex2 endIndex2
continue
else
display('Done with analysis of pauses...')
close all %CLOSE ALL FIGURE WINDOWS
clear x y v player hline1 array startIndex2 endIndex2
break
end
end
file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

�end

file:///C/Users/austerma/Desktop/PauseDetector.m.txt[7/2/2021 2:18:44 PM]

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              <text>&lt;a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"&gt;In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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              <text>While visual forms of vigilance behavior and their relationship with predation risk have been broadly examined, animals also employ other vigilance modalities such as auditory vigilance by listening for the acoustic cues of predators. Similar to the tradeoffs associated with visual vigilance, auditory behavior potentially structures the energy budgets and behavior of animals. The cryptic nature of auditory vigilance makes it difficult to study, but on-animal acoustical monitoring has rapidly advanced our ability to investigate behaviors and conditions related to sound. We utilized this technique to investigate the ways external stimuli in an active natural gas development field affect periodic pausing by mule deer (&lt;em&gt;Odocoileus hemionus&lt;/em&gt;) within bouts of rumination-based mastication. To better understand the ecological properties that structure this behavior, we investigate spatial and temporal factors related to these pauses to determine if results are consistent with our hypothesis that pausing is used for auditory vigilance. We found that deer paused more when in forested cover and at night, where visual vigilance was likely to be less effective. Additionally, deer paused more in areas of moderate background sound levels, though responses to anthropogenic features were less clear. Our results suggest that pauses during rumination represent a form of auditory vigilance that is responsive to landscape variables. Further exploration of this behavior can facilitate a more holistic understanding of risk perception and the costs associated with vigilance behavior.</text>
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              <text>Lynch, E., J. M. Northrup, M. F. McKenna, C. R. Anderson Jr, L. Angeloni, and G. Wittemyer. 2014. Landscape and anthropogenic features influence the use of auditory vigilance by mule deer. Behavioral Ecology 26:75–82. &lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru158" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru158&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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