Dolichotis is a taxonomic genus of rodents in Caviidae. It includes Dolichotis patagonum, the Patagonian mara. The alternative common name Patagonian hare does not place it in Lagomorpha: its family relationship is to rodents such as Cavia.[ref]
Dolichotis patagonum in Mammal Diversity Database. Record1001207, taxonomic placement and common name
[ref]Caviidae in NCBI Taxonomy. Family tree, Dolichotis and Cavia
Field observations reveal an unusual combination of social scales. A 1992 study of Dolichotis patagonum described pair relationships together with communal breeding: young from several pairs shared a warren. Larger groups had greater collective vigilance and higher pup survival, although each pair spent less time sitting alert at the warren.[ref]
Communal breeding in the mara, Dolichotis patagonum by A. B. Taber and D. W. Macdonald. Abstract, pair organization, warren membership and vigilance
An invented time-budget example shows why these measurements differ. Suppose each of two pairs watches during a different ten-minute interval: each pair watches for ten minutes, while the group has twenty minutes with a watcher present. If both watch simultaneously for ten minutes, individual effort is unchanged but collective coverage halves. Real coverage requires recording overlap, not merely adding individual durations. The field association between group size and survival motivates explanations involving predation; it does not by itself isolate a single cause.
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