Replication Data for: Fig 26.2 (Top), BGUW, Estimate of vigilance from focal samples, 31 July 2026.

For each GPDs, UPDs, and WTPDs, all focal individuals were marked, and for statistical analyses I used a single estimate of vigilance which was identical to the mean + SD of all the daily estimates over an entire field season. These estimates of vigilance from focal samples do not support the hypothesis that WTPDs should have the highest levels of vigilance, because they live in smaller, less dense colonies than individuals of the other three species.

These data used for Fig 26.2 (Top) in Hoogland 2026. This file ready for longterm storage on 30 April 2025. I considered data from the same prairie dog on different days and in different years to be independent.

BTPD data from focal samples are from unmarked individuals from several different colonies, (Hoogland 1979) and I therefore was unable to combine data from the same individual into a into a single mean + SD estimate per individual. The likelihood that I watched the same BTPD for >=2 focal samples was low, and I assumed that all scan samples were independent. For GPDs, we calculated a total of 1058 daily mean estimates from focal sampling, and then we calculated a single mean + SD estimate per individual from daily estimates of 60 marked GPDs at the Redondo Meadow Colony at Valles Caldera National Preserve.

(Hirschler et al. 2016, Animal Behaviour). UPD data for focal samples in this figure are all from Wright-Smith, who did not provide any information about sample sizes. The total number of observation hours for Wright-Smith's focal samples was 76 observation-hours.

I assumed that focal samples from Wright-Smith's were independent. We used the same methods for WTPD focal samples as for as for GPDs (Hirschler et al. 2016), and WTPD data from focal samples are from my single study-colony at the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Notice that BTPD and UPD focal samples were all from (presumably) different individuals, with one focal sample per individual.

For BTPDs and UPDs, therefore, a single estimate of vigilance per individual from several focal samples from the same individual was not possible. For GPDs and WTPDs, however, notice that a single mean estimate of vigilance for each prairie dog for the entire field season was based on several focal samples per individual taken over the course of a field season. I have checked these levels of vigilance from focal samples one time only on 30 April 2025.

This EXCEL file and Fig 26.2 (Top) show summaries only of data. Raw data are in my field notes. For other information on vigilance from focal samples and scan samples, see Chapter 7 of Hoogland 2026.

Because data are from different researchers with different methods, I have not performed statistical analyses regarding the possibility of statistical significance of the interspecific differences in vigilance shown here for focal samples. File name: Fig 26.2 (Top), BGUW, Estimate of vigilance from focal samples, 31 July 2026.