Data from: Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis
Data from: Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis
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Date
2018-12-31
Citation
Geary B, Walter ST, Leberg PL, Karubian J. 2018. Data from: Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.212g53s7Abstract
The degree to which foraging individuals are able to appropriately modify their behaviors in response to dynamic environmental conditions and associated resource availability can have important fitness consequences. Despite an increasingly refined understanding of differences in foraging behavior between individuals, we still lack detailed characterizations of within-individual variation over space and time, and what factors may drive this variability. From 2014 to 2017, we used GPS transmitters and accelerometers to document foraging movements by breeding adult Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the prey landscape is patchy and dynamic at various scales. Assessments of traditional foraging metrics such as trip distance, linearity, or duration did not yield significant relationships between individuals. However, we did observe lower site fidelity and less variation in energy expenditure in birds of higher body condition, despite a population-level trend of increased fidelity as the breeding season progressed. These findings suggest that high-quality individuals are both more variable and more efficient in their foraging behaviors during a period of high energetic demand, consistent with a “rich get richer” scenario in which individuals in better condition are able to invest in more costly behaviors that provide higher returns. This work highlights the importance of considering behavioral variation at multiple scales, with particular reference to within-individual variation, to improve our understanding of foraging ecology in wild populations.
Keywords
Pelecanus occidentalis,animal movement,animal tracking,behavioral flexibility,brown pelican,central place foraging,foraging ecology,Gulf of Mexico,individual variation,Pelecanus occidentalis,seabird
DOIs of related Publications
BibTex
@misc{001/1_212g53s7,
title = {Data from: Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis},
author = {Geary, B and Walter, ST and Leberg, PL and Karubian, J},
year = {2018},
URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.212g53s7},
doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.212g53s7},
publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}RIS
TY - DATA ID - doi:10.5441/001/1.212g53s7 T1 - Data from: Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis AU - Geary, Brock AU - Walter, Scott T. AU - Leberg, Paul L. AU - Karubian, Jordan Y1 - 2018/12/31 KW - Pelecanus occidentalis KW - animal foraging KW - animal movement KW - animal tracking KW - behavioral flexibility KW - brown pelican KW - central place foraging KW - foraging ecology KW - Gulf of Mexico KW - individual variation KW - Pelecanus occidentalis KW - seabird KW - Pelecanus occidentalis PB - Movebank data repository UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.212g53s7 DO - doi:10.5441/001/1.212g53s7 ER -