Increases in food availability can tempt oribi antelope into taking greater risks at both large and small spatial scales

Differences in food availability and predation risk can influence how herbivores use landscapes. As a result, trade-offs between costs and benefits can influence habitat and patch selection. To determine how oribi antelope, Ourebia ourebi, weigh up costs and benefits when making habitat and patch level foraging decisions, we measured giving-up densities in artificial patches. First, we determined large-scale habitat use, and then explored how different variables explained patch use within habitats. When the availability of food within patches across the different habitats was equal, oribi preferred to feed in short and tall grasslands and avoided woodlands. Furthermore, the avoidance of woodlands extended into the surrounding grasslands, resulting in oribi feeding less intensively in grassland areas within 15 m of the woodlands. Within the safe grassland habitats, oribi preferred to feed in patches close to tall grass (i.e. escape cover), and where they could see beyond 2 m. These results suggest that oribi select habitats and patches in relation to perceived predation risk (i.e. predation costs outweigh potential food intake benefits). However, when we increased food availability within woodlands, oribi increased their large-scale risk-taking behaviour and fed in these woodlands. Furthermore, this increased risk taking extended to small-scale foraging decisions whereby an increase in food availability within woodlands caused oribi to increase their relative usage of patches that had sight lines as well as patches that were closer to potential ambush sites. Ultimately, these results highlight how changes in food availability can determine the degree to which herbivores are willing to increase their risk-taking behaviour, and how these changes can affect overall landscape use.