Parallel Multimodal Circuits Control an Innate Foraging Behavior
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This study examines how an ant colony's foraging range changes as the colony grows older, and whether colonies preserve their foraging ranges from year to year. Foraging ranges were measured in 88 colonies of known age over the course of 5 years. A seed-eating ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, colony lives for 15–20 years, reaching a stable size of about 12 000 workers when it is about 5 years old. On average, foraging ranges of colonies 2 years and older were similar in size, so a colony with about 2000 workers uses as much area to forage as one with 12 000. A colony's foraging range increased most from ages 1 to 2 years, when the colony is still very small; increase of foraging area appears to be related to colony growth rather than overall colony size. From year to year, colonies did not retain or expand from a core foraging range. Instead, only about half the foraging range a colony used one summer was used by it the previous summer. However, the overlap of foraging ranges from year to year was significantly greater than expected if foraging ranges were distributed each year at random. The extent of year-to-year turnover in foraging range did not depend on colony age. Most colonies in which reproductives were observed were 5 years or older. These results are considered in the light of previous work showing that 3–4-year-old colonies, at about 75% of mature size, are more persistent in conflict with neighbours over foraging space than older, larger colonies. Effects of colony size on the rate of encounter with neighbours, and the costs of reproduction, may determine developmental changes in the territorial behaviour of an ant colony.
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Foraging in group living animals such as social insects, is collectively performed by individuals. However, our understanding on foraging behavior of subterranean termites is extremely limited, as the process of foraging in the field is mostly concealed. Because of this limitation, foraging behaviors of subterranean termites were indirectly investigated in the laboratory through tunnel geometry analysis and observations on tunneling behaviors. In this study, we tracked subsets of foraging workers from juvenile colonies of Coptotermes formosanus (2-yr-old) to describe general foraging behavioral sequences and to find how foraging workers allocate time between the foraging site (food acquisition or processing) and non-foraging site (food transportation).Once workers entered into the foraging site, they spent, on average, a significantly longer time at the foraging site than the non-foraging site. Our clustering analysis revealed two different types of foraging workers in the subterranean termite based on the duration of time they spent at the foraging site and their foraging frequency. After entering the foraging site, some workers (cluster 1) immediately initiated masticating wood fragments, which they transferred as food boluses to recipient workers at the foraging site. Conversely, the recipient workers (cluster 2) moved around after entering the foraging site and received food from donating workers.This study provides evidence of task specialization within foraging cohorts in subterranean termites.
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The temporal and spatial change of foraging activity of Macrotermes carbonarius (Hagen) was studied in a durian orchard of southeastern Thailand. This termite is the only open-air foraging species of the fungus-growing Macrotermitinae. Workers constructs “pavement” trackways on the ground, which are used as trunk trails to connect foraging holes to foraging sites. This is the first paper to show the trunk trail foraging in fungus-growing termites. The major workers made pavement trackways paved with soil and fecal pellets which open-air foraging columns used for traveling to the foraging area. The pavement trackway was longer than the subterranean gallery. Foraging workers spread from the end of the pavement trackway onto the foraging area, where they picked up dead grass from the ground surface and carried it into the foraging hole. The soldiers led the advancing column to a foraging site and guarded both sides of the column, facing away from the column’s edge. The outskirts of foraging area were guarded by minor and major soldiers and several minor soldiers always went ahead of the column, playing the role of scouts. Foraging took place only in the dry season and at night, and foraging areas were changed irregularly. In most instances, a single foraging site and one foraging hole was used for each foraging bout. The same pavement trackways and foraging sites were rarely used for two consecutive days.
Optimal foraging theory
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Summary Central to an animal's fitness is its foraging strategy and understanding the choices made by foraging animals is a fundamental aim in animal ecology. For diving animals, quantifying foraging effort within dives provides a measure of foraging that can be integrated with location information to reveal how animals use their environment as well as the trade‐offs associated with contrasting foraging strategies. We investigated the diving behaviour of 12 free‐ranging Antarctic fur seals ( Arctocephalus gazella ) during their post‐breeding winter migrations, quantifying within‐dive foraging effort using a novel approach to identify divergent foraging strategies and determine the costs and benefits associated with foraging decisions. Significant differences identified in both diving behaviour and foraging effort of female Antarctic fur seals could be attributed to two main, contrasting foraging strategies. Habitat was a major determinant of diving and foraging behaviour, with clear differences occurring either side of the Polar Front, a prominent oceanographic feature in the Southern Ocean. Longer night duration and improved access to vertically migrating prey lead to increased foraging opportunities and a reduced foraging effort south of the Polar Front. Dives in this region were short and shallow. Conversely, seals remaining closer to the breeding colony north of the Polar Front had deep, long dives and an elevated foraging effort. The distinct foraging strategies of fur seals have associated trade‐offs related to habitat availability, travel costs, prey accessibility and prey quality, which are likely driving their foraging decisions. This study highlights the trade‐offs between contrasting foraging strategies that currently coexist within a population of a wide‐ranging predator and raises questions about the viability of strategies with future change to population size or environmental conditions. Finally, understanding the trade‐offs associated with foraging strategies is important for assessing the foraging decisions of animals across a variety of environments.
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Fur seal
Optimal foraging theory
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Optimal foraging theory
Energetics
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Abstract Animals prefer to aggregate in patches with high abundance and availability of food resources. Group foragers typically receive information about food resources by monitoring external events and the behavior of neighbors. The Information Centre Hypothesis proposes that aggregations increase foraging activity levels as a result of social information provided by conspecifics. Increasing the foraging rate has as a result decreasing time devoted to anti‐predator vigilance and may intensify competition among group members. Studies have shown that foraging activities are influenced by factors other than flock size, such as the number and foraging intensity of neighbors. To test these hypotheses, we examined the effect of number and foraging intensity of neighbors on the foraging activity levels (foraging rate, foraging effort, and foraging success rate) of the wintering Oriental Storks ( Ciconia boyciana ). In this study, we collected focal sampling data on the foraging behavior of storks at Shengjin Lake during winter from 2017 to 2019, controlling the effects of other variables (group identity, wintering years, and wintering periods). We found that foraging activity levels were higher in the presence of foraging neighbors than in their absence. Moreover, individuals adjusted their foraging activity levels according to social information gathered from the behavior of neighboring conspecifics. Focal individuals’ foraging rate and foraging effort were positively correlated with the average foraging rate of neighbors. Their foraging success rate was not influenced by the average foraging rate and foraging success rate of neighbors; however, it was positively correlated with the average foraging effort of neighbors. In conclusion, foraging activity levels of individuals are primarily driven by the intensity of the foraging activity of neighbors. This result differs from the results of previous studies that suggested that flock size was the most important factor determining individual foraging activity levels.
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Vigilance (psychology)
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SummaryAlthough foraging performance of bees is generally assumed to improve when experience is gained, not many studies have been done on the development of foraging performance over multiple days in social bees. In this study, we analysed the effect of experience on performance of naïve foragers of the stingless bee Plebeia tobagoensis over two successive days. Foraging performance, computed as the total foraging trip time and load size, improved significantly with increased experience, mostly after the first few foraging trips. The improvement in foraging trip time was mainly the result of a decrease in flower handling time and time necessary to find the food source. There was a decrease in foraging performance following night, and the highest foraging performance level of all studied aspects was reached the first foraging day. This foraging performance pattern might be adaptive for social bee species with relatively small colony sizes foraging in dynamic foraging environments.
Stingless bee
Optimal foraging theory
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Animal ecology
Seasonality
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Anas
Optimal foraging theory
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The paper describes the foraging ecology of the Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti, a thermophilic, diurnal scavenger with ground-nesting colonies. Overlapping foraging ranges, low foraging success rates, and intercolony aggression suggest intense competition for food between colonies. Daily foraging starts when soil surface temperatures approach 50°C. Workers search individually and collect predominantly dead insects. Occasionally, they consume plant secretions. Foraging activity peaks on mid-summer days. On cloudy days the onset of foraging is delayed, and the foraging activity is low. Ants do not forage on rainy days. Typically, workers start their above-ground activities with a few short exploration runs. On average, they perform one foraging run on the first day of their outdoor lives. With age they gradually increase foraging site fidelity and daily foraging effort. Individual foraging efficiency is low at the beginning but grows with experience. However, due to a high mortality rate and, hence, high forager turnover, average rates of foraging success for a colony remain rather low. The outdoor activity gradually decreases towards the end of summer and appears to stop completely during the winter months.
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