10.5061/DRYAD.K3B1M
Patrick, Samantha C.
University of Liverpool
Pinaud, David
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Weimerskirch, Henri
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Data from: Boldness predicts an individual's position along an
exploration-exploitation foraging trade-off
Dryad
dataset
2017
albatrosses
area-restricted search
Diomedea exulans
first passage time
marginal value theorem
2017-06-29T11:53:01Z
2017-06-29T11:53:01Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12724
45398 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Individuals do not have complete information about the environment and
therefore they face a trade-off between gathering information
(exploration) and gathering resources (exploitation). Studies have shown
individual differences in components of this trade-off but how stable
these strategies are in a population and the intrinsic drivers of these
differences is not well understood. Top marine predators are expected to
experience a particularly strong trade-off as many species have large
foraging ranges and their prey often have a patchy distribution. This
environment leads these species to exhibit pronounced exploration and
exploitation phases but differences between individuals are poorly
resolved. Personality differences are known to be important in foraging
behaviour but also in the trade-off between exploration and exploitation.
Here we test whether personality predicts an individual
exploration-exploitation strategy using wide ranging wandering albatrosses
(Diomedea exulans) as a model system. Using GPS tracking data from 276
wandering albatrosses, we extract foraging parameters indicative of
exploration (searching) and exploitation (foraging) and show that foraging
effort, time in patch and size of patch are strongly correlated,
demonstrating these are indicative of an exploration-exploitation
strategy. Furthermore, we show these are consistent within individuals and
appear stable in the population, with no reproductive advantage. The
searching and foraging behaviour of bolder birds placed them towards the
exploration end of the trade-off, whereas shy birds showed greater
exploitation. This result provides a mechanism through which individual
foraging strategies may emerge. Age and sex affected components of the
trade-off, but not the trade-off itself, suggesting these factors may
drive behavioural compensation to maintain resource acquisition and this
was supported by the evidence that there were no fitness consequence of
any EE trait nor the trade-off itself. These results demonstrate a clear
trade-off between information gathering and exploitation of prey patches,
and reveals for the first time that boldness may drive these differences.
This provides a mechanism through which widely reported links between
personality and foraging may emerge.
dryad submission