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1
Reeves, Destiny, and Corrie Moreau. "The evolution of foraging behavior in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)." Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 77 (September 17, 2019): 351–63. https://doi.org/10.26049/ASP77-2-2019-10.
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Cooperative foraging behavior is a key characteristic of ants. A variety of foraging behaviors are present across this animal family, but little is known of how these behavioral traits evolved and differentiated. In addition, classification of these foraging behaviors has been inconsistent across the literature. Using four classification methods, we infer the ancestral foraging states across the Formicidae, as well as test the transitions between and resulting speciation due to foraging behavior. Our study reinforces the hypothesis that solitary foraging behaviors are ancestral to cooperative foraging behaviors, with strong support for solitary foraging at the root of the phylogeny. We find that cooperative foraging behaviors rarely revert to solitary, and that cooperative behaviors do not often transition between one another. While our findings are consistent across all four classification methods, they are limited by a small behavioral dataset relative to the number of living ant species-we therefore assert that behavioral data are as important as genetic data, and that further effort for detailed, published observations be maintained.
2
Rianti, Puji, Tamara M. Anisa, and Huda S. Darusman. "The Effects of the Fire Hose Square Knot Browser as a Foraging Enrichment Device on the Behavior of Captive Macaca fascicularis." Veterinary Sciences 11, no. 11 (2024): 535. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci11110535.
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Effective management of captive M. fascicularis (long-tailed macaques) is crucial for maintaining high-quality research models, necessitating strategies to promote their welfare. This study evaluated the impact of a foraging enrichment device, the “fire hose square knot browser”, on the behavior of 32 long-tailed macaques at the Primate Research Center of IPB University in Bogor, Indonesia. We observed and analyzed daily behaviors across various food types over 288 h using scan and instantaneous sampling methods. Statistical analyses, including ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests, revealed significant behavioral changes in the presence of the foraging enrichment device. The foraging enrichment device notably increased eating and affiliative behaviors, while reducing resting, agonistic, and stereotypic behaviors. No significant differences in eating, auto-grooming, resting, sexual, agonistic, or stereotypic behaviors were observed between the morning and afternoon. However, mobility and affiliation behaviors varied between these periods. The highest percentage of eating behavior occurred with the enrichment foraging device and a mixture of fruits. Furthermore, a three-way non-parametric analysis suggests a significant effect of food type and treatment on behaviors such as mobility and stereotyping. These findings underscore the positive impact of foraging enrichment devices on promoting active behavior and enhancing animal welfare in captive long-tailed macaques.
3
Su, Weixing, Lin Na, Fang Liu, Wei Liu, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, and Hanning Chen. "Artificial Plant Root System Growth for Distributed Optimization: Models and Emergent Behaviors." Open Life Sciences 11, no. 1 (2016): 447–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/biol-2016-0059.
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AbstractPlant root foraging exhibits complex behaviors analogous to those of animals, including the adaptability to continuous changes in soil environments. In this work, we adapt the optimality principles in the study of plant root foraging behavior to create one possible bio-inspired optimization framework for solving complex engineering problems. This provides us with novel models of plant root foraging behavior and with new methods for global optimization. This framework is instantiated as a new search paradigm, which combines the root tip growth, branching, random walk, and death. We perform a comprehensive simulation to demonstrate that the proposed model accurately reflects the characteristics of natural plant root systems. In order to be able to climb the noise-filled gradients of nutrients in soil, the foraging behaviors of root systems are social and cooperative, and analogous to animal foraging behaviors.
4
Wolf, Shelby, and Daniel Houlihan. "Behavioral Perspectives on Risk Prone Behavior: Why Do People Take Risks?" International Journal of Psychological Studies 10, no. 2 (2018): 71. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v10n2p71.
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Utilizing the principles and concepts of behavioral economics and operant psychology, researchers in both fields initiated the creation of the optimal foraging theory. This theory describes foraging behaviors mostly within animals other than humans. However, within recent empirical studies, optimal foraging theory has been modified to explain risky choices and decision-making processes within the context of risk-sensitive foraging theory for both animals and humans alike. Although most individuals belonging to the homo sapiensspecies would not like to admit that their behavior is very animalistic in nature, there is a great deal of veracity behind this idea, ranging from explaining gambling behavior to addictive behaviors to even homicide. Risk prone behavior describes behavior elicited for the potential gain of rewards under certain conditions, usually competitive in nature. The purpose of the current paper is to shed some light on this topic and how it relates to the most primitive of behaviors exhibited by human beings.
5
Temeles, Ethan J. "Reversed Sexual Size Dimorphism: Effect on Resource Defense and Foraging Behaviors of Nonbreeding Northern Harriers." Auk 103, no. 1 (1986): 70–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/auk/103.1.70.
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Abstract Sexual differences in resource defense and foraging behaviors during the nonbreeding season are detailed for Northern Harriers (Circus cyaneus) in California. Female harriers hunted more frequently in high (>0.5 m) vegetation than males. In addition, females hunted at slower speeds and used different hunting behaviors than males. Females in high vegetation showed a significantly greater response (i.e. attack) rate to approaching harriers than males, and females won nearly all (28/29) aggressive interactions with males. These results suggest that sexual differences in harrier foraging behavior during the nonbreeding season result from females excluding males from preferred foraging areas and males adopting alternative foraging strategies. Foraging strategies of harrier sexes are compared with foraging strategies of sexes of birds in which males are larger than females to examine the role of body size in determining sexual foraging strategies.
6
Dailey, Megan J., and Timothy J. Bartness. "Appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors stimulated by PVH and perifornical area NPY injections." American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 296, no. 4 (2009): R877—R892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.90568.2008.
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Food is acquired (obtained by foraging) and frequently stored (hoarded) across animal taxa, including humans, but the physiological mechanisms underlying these behaviors are virtually unknown. We found that peptides that stimulate food intake in rats stimulate food foraging and/or hoarding more than intake in Siberian hamsters. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a potent orexigenic peptide that increases food foraging and hoarding (appetitive behavior) and food intake (consummatory behavior). Given that NPY injections into the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVH) or perifornical area (PFA) increase food intake by rats, it is possible that these injections may stimulate food foraging or hoarding by Siberian hamsters. We also tested whether antagonism of the NPY Y1 receptor (Y1-R), the agonism of which stimulates hoarding, would inhibit post-food-deprivation increases in foraging and hoarding. We injected one of three doses of NPY or vehicle into the PVH or PFA of animals housed in a simulated foraging-hoarding housing system and measured these behaviors at 1, 2, 4, and 24 h. A subset of animals was subsequently food deprived and then given PVH or PFA Y1-R antagonist microinjections before they were refed. NPY PVH microinjections decreased foraging but increased hoarding and food intake, whereas NPY PFA microinjections increased all three behaviors, but the greatest increase was in hoarding. Y1-R antagonist inhibited post-food-deprivation increases in hoarding when injected into the PVH and PFA and inhibited foraging when injected into the PFA. These results support the view that NPY is involved in appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors, but each may be controlled by different brain areas and/or NPY receptor subtypes.
7
Asem Surindro Singh and Machathoibi Takhellambam Chanu. "Combined role of immediate early genes Egr-1, Hr-38 and Kakusei in the foraging behavior and learning in honeybees." World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 16, no. 2 (2022): 458–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2022.16.2.1169.
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The foraging behavior of honeybees is one of the most systematically composed behaviors among social insects which are admirable to watch. The main purpose of honeybee foraging is to collect food for their colony and since ancient days honeybee products have been used for various medicinal purposes (Singh and Takhellambam, 2021) (1). During foraging, honeybees gather information and transmit to their colony members regarding the location, distance, and profitability of forage sites with the help of unique movements called waggle dance. The capacities of honeybees’ time memory enable the foragers to return to a good food source in anticipation of the time of day. This highly intellectual, dynamic, and well-coordinated behavior of honeybees makes them to be one of the best choices of behavioral model to study various aspects of dynamic behaviors. As a result, vast knowledge in honeybee behavior has been accumulated and several recent studies immerge towards finding the underpinning regulatory biology of honeybee foraging behaviors. Immediate early genes (IE) genes are well documented neural markers and their promising roles in honeybee foraging have been demonstrated. Two of our recent studies showed three IE genes Egr-1, Hr-38 and Kakusei involvement during the daily foraging of honeybees. This finding has provided an avenue to further explore and identify the regulatory genes/proteins and neurons that underlie a specific behavior such as learning, memory, communication, and interaction etc. In this study we further analyze our previous published data to examine interaction of the three genes during the daily foraging of honeybees.
8
Muzzo, Bashiri Iddy, Kelvyn Bladen, Andres Perea, Shelemia Nyamuryekung’e, and Juan J. Villalba. "Multi-Sensor Integration and Machine Learning for High-Resolution Classification of Herbivore Foraging Behavior." Animals 15, no. 7 (2025): 913. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15070913.
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This study classified cows’ foraging behaviors using machine learning (ML) models evaluated through random test split (RTS) and cross-validation (CV) data partition methods. Models included Perceptron, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest (RF), and XGBoost (XGB). These models classified activity states (active vs. static), foraging behaviors (grazing (GR), resting (RE), walking (W), ruminating (RU)), posture states (standing up (SU) vs. lying down (LD)), and posture combinations with rumination and resting behaviors (RU_SU, RU_LD, RE_SU, and RE_LD). XGB achieved the highest accuracy for state classification (74.5% RTS, 74.2% CV) and foraging behavior (69.4% CV). RF outperformed XGB in other classifications, including GR, RE, and RU (62.9% CV vs. 56.4% RTS), posture (83.9% CV vs. 79.4% RTS), and behaviors-by-posture (58.8% CV vs. 56.4% RTS). Key predictors varied: speed and Actindex were crucial for GR and W when increasing and for RE and RU when decreasing. X low values were linked to RE_SU and RU_SU, while X and Z influenced RE_LD more. RTS showed higher accuracy in activity states classification while CV in foraging behaviors and by posture classification. These results emphasize CV in RF’s reliability in managing complex behavioral patterns and the importance of continuous recording devices and movement data to monitor cattle behavior accurately.
9
Rombach, Meike, and David L. Dean. "Exploring Key Factors Driving Urban Foraging Behavior in Garden and Non-Garden Locations." Foods 12, no. 5 (2023): 1032. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12051032.
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Since the occurrence of COVID-19 and food price inflation, alternative forms of food procurement increased in popularity. The present study is dedicated to urban foraging and aims to explore key factors driving food foraging behavior in the U.S. Two specific foraging behaviors, namely “leaving food behind” or “taking it all”, have been investigated in a gardening and non-gardening location. Leaving food behind is crucial to sustainable foraging practices, as it allows plants and ecosystems to recover and promotes fairness in foraging communities. Data was procured from an online consumer survey and analyzed using SmartPLS 4, which allowed the use of partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). PLS-SEM is particularly suitable for complex exploratory studies as it does not require distributional assumptions. Results indicate that nature and food attitudes predict attitudes toward urban foraging. Foraging attitudes, such as food foraging is challenging and food foraging benefits people and the planet, which are the most important drivers for taking or leaving behaviors in both types of locations. These findings are of relevance to managers in municipalities, landscape designers, horticultural businesses, and other stakeholders who create, shape, and govern landscapes used for food foraging.
10
Asem, Surindro Singh, and Takhellambam Chanu Machathoibi. "Combined role of immediate early genes Egr-1, Hr-38 and Kakusei in the foraging behavior and learning in honeybees." World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 16, no. 2 (2022): 458–65. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7785643.
Full textAbstract:
The foraging behavior of honeybees is one of the most systematically composed behaviors among social insects which are admirable to watch. The main purpose of honeybee foraging is to collect food for their colony and since ancient days honeybee products have been used for various medicinal purposes (Singh and Takhellambam, 2021) (1). During foraging, honeybees gather information and transmit to their colony members regarding the location, distance, and profitability of forage sites with the help of unique movements called waggle dance. The capacities of honeybees’ time memory enable the foragers to return to a good food source in anticipation of the time of day. This highly intellectual, dynamic, and well-coordinated behavior of honeybees makes them to be one of the best choices of behavioral model to study various aspects of dynamic behaviors. As a result, vast knowledge in honeybee behavior has been accumulated and several recent studies immerge towards finding the underpinning regulatory biology of honeybee foraging behaviors. Immediate early genes (IE) genes are well documented neural markers and their promising roles in honeybee foraging have been demonstrated. Two of our recent studies showed three IE genes <em>Egr-1</em>, <em>Hr-38</em> and <em>Kakusei</em> involvement during the daily foraging of honeybees. This finding has provided an avenue to further explore and identify the regulatory genes/proteins and neurons that underlie a specific behavior such as learning, memory, communication, and interaction etc. In this study we further analyze our previous published data to examine interaction of the three genes during the daily foraging of honeybees.
11
Zumpano, Francisco, Melina V. Castano, Marco Favero, and Germán O. García. "Factors affecting individual foraging behavior in a threatened seabird: Olrog’s Gull (Larus atlanticus) as a case study." Canadian Journal of Zoology 99, no. 8 (2021): 658–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2020-0203.
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The analysis of feeding strategies in animals is one of the most important topics in foraging ecology. The individual’s foraging behavior depends on both the individual’s own actions and the behavior of other foragers. Here we analyse the effect of the sex and group size on the foraging behavior of immature Olrog’s Gull (Larus atlanticus Olrog, 1958), endemic to the Atlantic coast of southern South America and regionally listed a threatened species. Birds were captured, banded, sexed, and aged during the non-breeding season in Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon, Argentina. The foraging behavior was quantified by observations made on individuals of known identity, recording the size of foraging groups, as well as prey size and type. Foraging parameters estimated were foraging effort, capture rate, and foraging efficiency. Males spent more time in agonistic behavior and captured larger prey. With an increase in group size, the capture rate, the capture of small crabs by males, and the foraging effort were higher. The agonistic behaviors, size of consumed prey, and foraging effort were affected by individual identity. Our study pinpoints factors underlying variation in the foraging behavior of Olrog’s Gulls and illustrates the importance of modelling individual variation when analyzing foraging behavior.
12
Fujii, Jessica A., Don McLeish, Andrew J. Brooks, John Gaskell, and Kyle S. Van Houtan. "Limb-use by foraging marine turtles, an evolutionary perspective." PeerJ 6 (March 28, 2018): e4565. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4565.
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The use of limbs for foraging is documented in both marine and terrestrial tetrapods. These behaviors were once believed to be less likely in marine tetrapods due to the physical constraints of body plans adapted to locomotion in a fluid environment. Despite these obstacles, ten distinct types of limb-use while foraging have been previously reported in nine marine tetrapod families. Here, we expand the types of limb-use documented in marine turtles and put it in context with the diversity of marine tetrapods currently known to use limbs for foraging. Additionally, we suggest that such behaviors could have occurred in ancestral turtles, and thus, possibly extend the evolutionary timeline of limb-use behavior in marine tetrapods back approximately 70 million years. Through direct observation in situ and crowd-sourcing, we document the range of behaviors across habitats and prey types, suggesting its widespread occurrence. We argue the presence of these behaviors among marine tetrapods may be limited by limb mobility and evolutionary history, rather than foraging ecology or social learning. These behaviors may also be remnant of ancestral forelimb-use that have been maintained due to a semi-aquatic life history.
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Rosenbaum, Barry, Sukh Amgalanbaatar, and Richard P. Reading. "Seasonal Daytime Activity Budget of Mongolian Gobi Argali Sheep (Ovis ammon)." Mongolian Journal Of Biological Sciences 19, no. 2 (2021): 3–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.22353/mjbs.2021.19.10.
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Activity patterns provide insight into the overall relationship between a species and its environment. Despite declines in populations of argali and some attention on ecological questions, limited information exists on argali behavior. We measured diurnal activity budgets of argali for 12 months by recording behavior (i.e., foraging, bedding, standing, traveling, other) with instantaneous scan sampling at 5-minute intervals. Argali exhibited seasonal differences in activity budgets. The greatest proportion of daytime in winter was spent foraging. The greatest proportion of daytime in summer was spent bedding. Argali reduced all other behaviors in winter in favor of foraging. In summer argali reduced their foraging to a seasonal low and increased bedding. Behavior was constrained by forage in winter and by temperatures in summer. Females fed more than males in all seasons. Other behaviors varied according to season and reproductive periods. Females demonstrated highest vigilance in spring and summer, while males exhibited highest vigilance during the autumn rut. These data are the first regarding detailed behavior of argali and are valuable to their management and conservation by providing information on constraints faced by the species.
14
McBrayer, Lance D., and Stephen M. Reilly. "Prey processing in lizards: behavioral variation in sit-and-wait and widely foraging taxa." Canadian Journal of Zoology 80, no. 5 (2002): 882–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z02-068.
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We determined the degree to which lizards process (i.e., chew) and manipulate their prey, using a phylogenetically broad sample of 12 species. Two transport and two chewing behaviors were identified. The transport behaviors included side-to-side movements and lingually mediated posterior movements of the prey. Chewing behaviors included puncture crushing and a previously undescribed behavior we term palatal crushing. Iguanian lizards (sit-and-wait predators) engaged in more palatal-crushing behaviors than autarchoglossans (widely foraging predators) did. However, iguanians also engaged in fewer cycles of chewing and transport behaviors per feeding bout. Autarchoglossan lizards used puncture crushing extensively and exhibited more variability in the sequence of behaviors used within a bout ( interspersion of transport behaviors among chewing behaviors). Three behaviors (puncture crushing, interspersion, total) were shown to be coevolving after the effects of phylogeny were removed. The variation in feeding behavior we observed between iguanian and autarchoglossan lizards parallels patterns in tongue morphology and foraging mode in these large groups. Thus, it seems likely that each represents a component of a highly integrated character complex linking feeding morphology, behavior, and ecology.
15
Zhong, Yundong, Lei Cheng, Yanguang Fan, Lizhi Zhou, and Yunwei Song. "The Foraging Window for Greater White-Fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) Is Consistent with the Growth Stage of Carex." Diversity 14, no. 11 (2022): 943. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d14110943.
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Food resources are key limiting factors for migratory waterbirds, and the foraging strategies adopted by herbivorous waterbirds are affected by food availability in wetland habitats. The greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) is mainly dependent on Carex in the lower and middle Yangtze River floodplain. Exploring the relationship between the growth conditions of Carex and the foraging strategies adopted by wintering greater white-fronted geese has important ecological implications for habitat protection and management. In this study, scan sampling and focal animal sampling were used to record the foraging behaviors of greater white-fronted geese wintering at Shengjin Lake, and the plant height and water content of Carex were surveyed simultaneously. The relationship between plant characteristics and foraging behaviors was tested using a linear regression equation. The results showed that Carex had two growth periods at Shengjin Lake, and the pecking rate and foraging time budget of greater white-fronted geese were higher during these two periods. Plant characteristics were positively correlated with goose foraging behaviors. The strategic adjustment of the foraging behaviors adopted by wintering greater white-fronted geese was consistent with the growth stage of Carex, which is the optimal foraging window for greater white-fronted geese. During the foraging windows, geese changed their foraging strategies to obtain more energy in order to guarantee successful wintering and migration.
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Dailey, Megan E., and Timothy J. Bartness. "Fat pad-specific effects of lipectomy on foraging, food hoarding, and food intake." American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 294, no. 2 (2008): R321—R328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00230.2007.
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Unlike most species, after food deprivation, Siberian hamsters increase foraging and food hoarding, two appetitive ingestive behaviors, but not food intake, a consummatory ingestive behavior. We previously demonstrated (Wood AD, Bartness TJ, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 272: R783−R792, 1997) that increases in food hoarding are triggered by directly decreasing body fat levels through partial surgical lipectomy; however, we did not test if lipectomy affected foraging, nor if the magnitude of the lipid deficit affected food hoard size. Therefore, we tested whether varying the size of the lipectomy-induced lipid deficit and/or foraging effort affected foraging, food hoarding, or food intake. This was accomplished by housing adult male Siberian hamsters in a foraging/hoarding system and removing (x) both epididymal white adipose tissue (EWATx) pads, both inguinal white adipose tissue (IWATx) pads, or both EWAT and IWAT pads (EWATx + IWATx) and measuring foraging, food hoarding, and food intake for 12 wk. The lipectomy-induced lipid deficit triggered different patterns of white adipose tissue mass compensation that varied with foraging effort. Foraging for food (10 wheel revolutions to earn a food pellet) abolished the EWATx-induced compensation in IWAT pad mass. The magnitude of the lipid deficit did not engender a proportional change in any of the appetitive or consummatory ingestive behaviors. EWATx caused the greatest increase in food hoarding compared with IWATx or EWATx + IWATx, when animals were required to forage for their food. Collectively, it appears that the magnitude of a lipid deficit does not affect appetitive or consummatory behaviors; rather, when energy (foraging) demands are increased, loss of specific (gonadal) fat pads can preferentially stimulate increases in food hoarding.
17
Calderón-Capote, María C., M. Teague O’Mara, Margaret C. Crofoot, and Dina K. N. Dechmann. "Intraspecific variability of social structure and linked foraging behavior in females of a widespread bat species (Phyllostomus hastatus)." PLOS ONE 20, no. 3 (2025): e0313782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313782.
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Intraspecific variation in morphology and behavior is widespread, especially in species with large distribution ranges. This includes foraging which can vary according to the local resource landscape. How this may be linked to differences in social structure, especially in socially foraging species is less known. Greater spear-nosed bats are well known for their large repertoire of often highly complex social behaviors. In Trinidad, they form stable groups of unrelated females that recruit other members to temporally unpredictable flowering balsa trees. We compared these findings with a dataset of capture data, GPS tracks, and observations collected over six years in a colony in Panamá. We found profound differences in the foraging behavior and group stability of Phyllostomus hastatus during the dry season where social behaviors were expected. Female bats did not coordinate commutes to exploit distinct foraging resources as a group. Instead, females commuted individually to very distant foraging areas which overlapped between groups. Linked to this we found groups to be unstable in size over the short and long term. Our findings highlight the large intraspecific variation and indicate a strong influence of the local resource landscape and associated benefits of social foraging on the social structure in these bats and possibly many other animals.
18
Geary, Brock, Scott T. Walter, Paul L. Leberg, and Jordan Karubian. "Condition-dependent foraging strategies in a coastal seabird: evidence for the rich get richer hypothesis." Behavioral Ecology 30, no. 2 (2018): 356–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ary173.
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Abstract 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.
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Trivelpiece, Wayne Z., John L. Bengtson, Susan G. Trivelpiece, and Nicholas J. Volkman. "Foraging Behavior of Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins as Determined by New Radiotelemetry Techniques." Auk 103, no. 4 (1986): 777–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/auk/103.4.777.
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Abstract Analysis of radio signals from transmitters affixed to 7 Gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) and 6 Chinstrap (P. antarctica) penguins allowed us to track penguins at sea. Signal characteristics allowed us to distinguish among 5 foraging behaviors: porpoising, underwater swimming, horizontal diving, vertical diving, and resting or bathing. Gentoo Penguins spent a significantly greater portion of their foraging trips engaged in feeding behaviors than Chinstraps, which spent significantly more time traveling. Gentoos had significantly longer feeding dives than Chinstraps (128 s vs. 91 s) and significantly higher dive-pause ratios (3.4 vs. 2.6). These differences in foraging behavior suggest Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins may have different diving abilities and may forage at different depths.
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Sweet, K. A., B. P. Sweet, D. G. E. Gomes, C. D. Francis, and J. R. Barber. "Natural and anthropogenic noise increase vigilance and decrease foraging behaviors in song sparrows." Behavioral Ecology 33, no. 1 (2021): 288–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab141.
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Abstract Animals glean information about risk from their habitat. The acoustic environment is one such source of information, and is an important, yet understudied ecological axis. Although anthropogenic noise has become recently ubiquitous, risk mitigation behaviors have likely been shaped by natural noise over millennia. Listening animals have been shown to increase vigilance and decrease foraging in both natural and anthropogenic noise. However, direct comparisons could be informative to conservation and understanding evolutionary drivers of behavior in noise. Here, we used 27 song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and 148 laboratory behavioral trials to assess foraging and vigilance behavior in both anthropogenic and natural noise sources. Using five acoustic environments (playbacks of roadway traffic, a whitewater river, a whitewater river shifted upwards in frequency, a river with the amplitude modulation of roadway traffic, and an ambient control), we attempt to parse out the acoustic characteristics that make a foraging habitat risky. We found that sparrows increased vigilance or decreased foraging in 4 of 6 behaviors when foraging in higher sound levels regardless of the noise source or variation in frequency and amplitude modulation. These responses may help explain previously reported declines in abundance of song sparrows exposed to playback of intense river noise. Our results imply that natural soundscapes have likely shaped behavior long before anthropogenic noise, and that high sound levels negatively affect the foraging-vigilance trade-off in most intense acoustic environments. Given the ever-increasing footprint of noise pollution, these results imply potential negative consequences for bird populations.
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Day, Diane E., Erin Keen-Rhinehart, and Timothy J. Bartness. "Role of NPY and its receptor subtypes in foraging, food hoarding, and food intake by Siberian hamsters." American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 289, no. 1 (2005): R29—R36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00853.2004.
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Fasting has widespread physiological and behavioral effects such as increases in arcuate nucleus neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene expression in rodents, including Siberian hamsters. Fasting also stimulates foraging and food hoarding (appetitive ingestive behaviors) by Siberian hamsters but does relatively little to change food intake (consummatory ingestive behavior). Therefore, we tested the effects of third ventricular NPY Y1 ([Pro34]NPY) or Y5 ([d-Trp34]NPY) receptor agonists on these ingestive behaviors using a wheel running-based food delivery system coupled with simulated burrow housing. Siberian hamsters had 1) no running wheel access and free food, 2) running wheel access and free food, or 3) foraging requirements (10 or 50 revolutions/pellet). NPY (1.76 nmol) stimulated food intake only during the first 4 h postinjection (∼200–1,000%) and mostly in hamsters with a foraging requirement. The Y1 receptor agonist markedly increased food hoarding (250–1,000%), increased foraging as well as wheel running per se, and had relatively little effect on food intake (<250%). Unlike NPY, the Y5 agonist significantly increased food intake, especially in foraging animals (∼225–800%), marginally increased food hoarding (250–500%), and stimulated foraging and wheel running 4–24 h postinjection, with the distribution of earned pellets favoring eating versus hoarding across time. Across treatments, food hoarding predominated early postinjection, whereas food intake tended to do so later. Collectively, NPY stimulated both appetitive and consummatory ingestive behaviors in Siberian hamsters involving Y1/Y5 receptors, with food hoarding and foraging/wheel running (appetitive) more involved with Y1 receptors and food intake (consummatory) with Y5 receptors.
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Ramakrishnan, Subramanian, Thomas Laurent, Manish Kumar, and Andrea L. Bertozzi. "Spatiotemporal chemotactic model for ant foraging." Modern Physics Letters B 28, no. 30 (2014): 1450238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0217984914502388.
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In this paper, we present a generic theoretical chemotactic model that accounts for certain emergent behaviors observed in ant foraging. The model does not have many of the constraints and limitations of existing models for ants colony dynamics and takes into account the distinctly different behaviors exhibited in nature by ant foragers in search of food and food ferrying ants. Numerical simulations based on the model show trail formation in foraging ant colonies to be an emergent phenomenon and, in particular, replicate behavior observed in experiments involving the species P. megacephala. The results have broader implications for the study of randomness in chemotactic models. Potential applications include the developments of novel algorithms for stochastic search in engineered complex systems such as robotic swarms.
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Hepp, Gary R. "Effects of environmental parameters on the foraging behavior of three species of wintering dabbling ducks (Anatini)." Canadian Journal of Zoology 63, no. 2 (1985): 289–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z85-044.
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Foraging behaviors of wintering gadwall (Anas strepera), pintail (Anas acuta), and green-winged teal (Anas crecca carolinensis) were studied at Bodie Island, North Carolina. Foraging speed (metres per minute) and rate of foraging (dips per minute) did not differ by sex, but significant monthly variation of foraging components occurred for all species. Ducks fed at faster rates and increased their foraging speed as winter progressed. Stepwise multiple regression procedures were used to test the effects of day length (minutes), mean daily temperature (degrees Celsius), mean daily wind speed (kilometres per hour), water depth (centimetres), and density of foraging individuals on the temporal variation in rate and speed of foraging. Changes in the foraging speed and rate of dipping of winter ducks were significantly related to decreases in day length and average daily temperatures. Other environmental parameters had variable effects on foraging behavior. Estimates of total prey biomass did not vary significantly during winter; however, changes in the distribution of prey sizes may have contributed to changes in foraging behavior. Greater foraging speed and rate of dipping may have been a behavioral mechanism which increased ingestion rate and minimized foraging time, thereby allowing wintering ducks to reduce thermal stress through modification of activity patterns and selection of more favorable microclimates.
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Talyn, Becky, Kelly Muller, Cindy Mercado, Bryan Gonzalez, and Katherine Bartels. "The Herbicide Glyphosate and Its Formulations Impact Animal Behavior across Taxa." Agrochemicals 2, no. 3 (2023): 367–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agrochemicals2030022.
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Use of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides is ubiquitous in US agriculture and widespread around the world. Despite marketing efforts to the contrary, numerous studies demonstrate glyphosate toxicity to non-target organisms including animals, primarily focusing on mortality, carcinogenicity, renal toxicity, reproductive, and neurological toxicity, and the biochemical mechanisms underlying these physiological outcomes. Glyphosate toxicity also impacts animal behavior, both in model systems and in agricultural and environmentally relevant contexts. In this review, we examine the effects of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides on animal behaviors, particularly activity, foraging and feeding, anti-predator behavior, reproductive behaviors, learning and memory, and social behaviors. Glyphosate can be detected both in food and in the environment, and avoided through activity and feeding strategies. However, exposure also reduces activity, depresses foraging and feeding, increases susceptibility to predation, interferes with courtship, mating, fertility and maternal behaviors, decreases learning and memory capabilities, and disrupts social behaviors. Changes in animal behavior as a result of glyphosate toxicity are important because of their sometimes severe effects on individual fitness, as well as ecosystem health. Implications for human behavior are also considered.
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Pavlic, Theodore P., and Kevin M. Passino. "Generalizing foraging theory for analysis and design." International Journal of Robotics Research 30, no. 5 (2011): 505–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0278364910396551.
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Foraging theory has been the inspiration for several decision-making algorithms for task-processing agents facing random environments. As nature selects for foraging behaviors that maximize lifetime calorie gain or minimize starvation probability, engineering designs are favored that maximize returned value (e.g. profit) or minimize the probability of not reaching performance targets. Prior foraging-inspired designs are direct applications of classical optimal foraging theory (OFT). Here, we describe a generalized optimization framework that encompasses the classical OFT model, a popular competitor, and several new models introduced here that are better suited for some task-processing applications in engineering. These new models merge features of rate maximization, efficiency maximization, and risk-sensitive foraging while not sacrificing the intuitive character of classical OFT. However, the central contributions of this paper are analytical and graphical methods for designing decision-making algorithms guaranteed to be optimal within the framework. Thus, we provide a general modeling framework for solitary agent behavior, several new and classic examples that apply to it, and generic methods for design and analysis of optimal task-processing behaviors that fit within the framework. Our results extend the key mathematical features of optimal foraging theory to a wide range of other optimization objectives in biological, anthropological, and technological contexts.
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Xie, Lei, Tong Han, Huan Zhou, Zhuo-Ran Zhang, Bo Han, and Andi Tang. "Tuna Swarm Optimization: A Novel Swarm-Based Metaheuristic Algorithm for Global Optimization." Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience 2021 (October 20, 2021): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/9210050.
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In this paper, a novel swarm-based metaheuristic algorithm is proposed, which is called tuna swarm optimization (TSO). The main inspiration for TSO is based on the cooperative foraging behavior of tuna swarm. The work mimics two foraging behaviors of tuna swarm, including spiral foraging and parabolic foraging, for developing an effective metaheuristic algorithm. The performance of TSO is evaluated by comparison with other metaheuristics on a set of benchmark functions and several real engineering problems. Sensitivity, scalability, robustness, and convergence analyses were used and combined with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Friedman test. The simulation results show that TSO performs better compared to other comparative algorithms.
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Flint, Paul L., John A. Reed, Deborah L. Lacroix, and Richard B. Lanctot. "Habitat Use and Foraging Patterns of Molting Male Long-tailed Ducks in Lagoons of the Central Beaufort Sea, Alaska." ARCTIC 69, no. 1 (2016): 19. http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4544.
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From mid-July through September, 10 000 to 30 000 Long-tailed Ducks (<em>Clangula hyemalis</em>) use the lagoon systems of the central Beaufort Sea for remigial molt. Little is known about their foraging behavior and patterns of habitat use during this flightless period. We used radio transmitters to track male Long-tailed Ducks through the molt period from 2000 to 2002 in three lagoons: one adjacent to industrial oil field development and activity and two in areas without industrial activity. We found that an index to time spent foraging generally increased through the molt period. Foraging, habitat use, and home range size showed similar patterns, but those patterns were highly variable among lagoons and across years. Even with continuous daylight during the study period, birds tended to use offshore areas during the day for feeding and roosted in protected nearshore waters at night. We suspect that variability in behaviors associated with foraging, habitat use, and home range size are likely influenced by availability of invertebrate prey. Proximity to oil field activity did not appear to affect foraging behaviors of molting Long-tailed Ducks.
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Okuyama, T., and R. L. Ruyle. "Analysis of adaptive foraging in an intraguild predation system." Web Ecology 4, no. 1 (2003): 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/we-4-1-2003.
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Abstract. An intraguild predation (IGP) system with adaptive foraging behavior was analyzed using a simple mathematical model. The main aim was to explore how the adaptive behavior affects species interactions as well as how such interactions derived from adaptive behavior affect community stability. The focal system contained top predators, intermediate predators, and basal prey. Intermediate predators exhibit antipredator behavior and balance costs (e.g. perceived predation risk) and benefits (e.g. resource intake) to determine their foraging effort. Density-dependent foraging behavior with the unique connectance of the IGP food web created unusual species interactions. Notably, increased prey density can transmit negative indirect effects to top predators while increased top predator density transmits positive indirect effects to prey population. The nature of these interactions is density-dependent. The results suggest that both IGP (as opposed to linear food chain) and adaptive foraging behaviors may strongly influence community dynamics due to emergent interactions among direct effects and indirect effects. Furthermore, the adaptive foraging of intermediate predators may stabilize the community as a whole.
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Kole, Harvey. "FREE ENERGY FORAGING IN AN AFFORDANCE LANDSCAPE." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES & RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY 7, no. 8 (2018): 450–70. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1345686.
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<strong>ABSTRACT</strong> <strong>Introduction</strong> In this article we construct a simulation of a virtual agent which is equipped with a predictive model of its environment and which operates based on the free energy principle to minimize prediction error. The agent is capable of perceiving a landscape of multiple a_ordances for action in the environment, and selects behaviors towards those a_ordances based on its internal needs and its relation to certain facets of the environment. <strong>Methods</strong> Through the use of a hierarchical model, the agent is endowed with the ability to choose high level behaviors which stabilize its actions, mid level behaviors which respond appropriately to a_ordances, and low level actions which modify action online. <strong>Results</strong> We demonstrate the ability of the agent to engage in foraging behavior based on free energy minimization. The agent is shown to balance multiple conicting needs by responding to appropriate a_ordances in appropriate contexts. The agent is further shown to dynamically adjust its behavior on the y to respond to obstacles in its path. Overall it demonstrates appropriate behavior over multiple timescales. <strong>Conclusions</strong> The agent we have introduced engages in probablistic inference of the hidden states and causes of the external world, and is led by prediction error minimization to either update its model to be more faithful to the dynamics of the world or to execute actions which cause the world to be more in line with its own predictions. Throughout the course of prediction making, the agent is inuenced by the state of the external environment and its internal needs.
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Haase, Catherine G., Robert J. Fletcher, Daniel H. Slone, James P. Reid, and Susan M. Butler. "Traveling to thermal refuges during stressful temperatures leads to foraging constraints in a central-place forager." Journal of Mammalogy 101, no. 1 (2019): 271–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyz197.
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Abstract Central-place foragers can be constrained by the distance between habitats. When an organism relies on a central place for thermal refuge, the distance to food resources can potentially constrain foraging behavior. We investigated the effect of distance between thermal refuges and forage patches of the cold-intolerant marine mammal, the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), on foraging duration. We tested the alternative hypotheses of time minimization and energy maximization as a response to distance between habitats. We also determined if manatees mitigate foraging constraints with increased visits to closer thermal refuges. We used hidden Markov models to assign discrete behaviors from movement parameters as a function of water temperature and assessed the influence of distance on foraging duration in water temperatures above (&gt; 20°C) and below (≤ 20°C) the lower critical limit of the thermoneutral zone of manatees. We found that with increased distance, manatees decreased foraging duration in cold water temperature and increased foraging duration in warmer temperatures. We also found that manatees returned to closer thermal refuges more often. Our results suggest that the spatial relationship of thermal and forage habitats can impact behavioral decisions regarding foraging. Addressing foraging behavior questions while considering thermoregulatory behavior implicates the importance of understanding changing environments on animal behavior, particularly in the face of current global change.
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Lee, Won, Eilene Yang, and James P. Curley. "Foraging dynamics are associated with social status and context in mouse social hierarchies." PeerJ 6 (September 19, 2018): e5617. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5617.
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Living in social hierarchies requires individuals to adapt their behavior and physiology. We have previously shown that male mice living in groups of 12 form linear and stable hierarchies with alpha males producing the highest daily level of major urinary proteins and urine. These findings suggest that maintaining alpha status in a social group requires higher food and water intake to generate energetic resources and produce more urine. To investigate whether social status affects eating and drinking behaviors, we measured the frequency of these behaviors in each individual mouse living in a social hierarchy with non-stop video recording for 24 h following the initiation of group housing and after social ranks were stabilized. We show alpha males eat and drink most frequently among all individuals in the hierarchy and had reduced quiescence of foraging both at the start of social housing and after hierarchies were established. Subdominants displayed a similar pattern of behavior following hierarchy formation relative to subordinates. The association strength of foraging behavior was negatively associated with that of agonistic behavior corrected for gregariousness (HWIG), suggesting animals modify foraging behavior to avoid others they engaged with aggressively. Overall, this study provides evidence that animals with different social status adapt their eating and drinking behaviors according to their physiological needs and current social environment.
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Keen-Rhinehart, Erin, and Timothy J. Bartness. "Peripheral ghrelin injections stimulate food intake, foraging, and food hoarding in Siberian hamsters." American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 288, no. 3 (2005): R716—R722. http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00705.2004.
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Fasting triggers many effects, including increases in circulating concentrations of ghrelin, a primarily stomach-derived orexigenic hormone. Exogenous ghrelin treatment stimulates food intake, implicating it in fasting-induced increases in feeding, a consummatory ingestive behavior. In Siberian hamsters, fasting also stimulates appetitive ingestive behaviors such as foraging and food hoarding. Therefore, we tested whether systemic ghrelin injections (3, 30, and 200 mg/kg) would stimulate these appetitive behaviors using a running wheel-based food delivery system coupled with simulated burrow housing. We also measured active ghrelin plasma concentrations after exogenous ghrelin treatment and compared them to those associated with fasting. Hamsters had the following: 1) no running wheel access, free food; 2) running wheel access, free food; or 3) foraging requirement (10 revolutions/pellet), no free food. Ghrelin stimulated foraging at 0–1, 2–4, and 4–24 h postinjection but failed to affect wheel running activity not coupled to food. Ghrelin stimulated food intake initially (200–350%, first 4 h) across all groups; however, in hamsters with a foraging requirement, ghrelin also stimulated food intake 4–24 h postinjection (200–250%). Ghrelin stimulated food hoarding 2–72 h postinjection (100–300%), most markedly 2–4 h postinjection in animals lacking a foraging requirement (635%). Fasting increased plasma active ghrelin concentrations in a time-dependent fashion, with the 3- and 30-mg/kg dose creating concentrations of the peptide comparable to those induced by 24–48 h of fasting. Collectively, these data suggest that exogenous ghrelin, similar to fasting, increases appetitive behaviors (foraging, hoarding) by Siberian hamsters, but dissimilar to fasting in this species, stimulates food intake.
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Hall, Stephen J. G., Robert G. H. Bunce, David R. Arney, and Elis Vollmer. "Sheep in Species-Rich Temperate Grassland: Combining Behavioral Observations with Vegetation Characterization." Animals 10, no. 9 (2020): 1471. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10091471.
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Foraging behavior of livestock in species-rich, less intensively managed grassland communities will require different methodologies from those appropriate in floristically simple environments. In this pilot study on sheep in species-rich grassland in northern Estonia, foraging behavior and the plant species of the immediate area grazed by the sheep were registered by continually-recording Go-Pro cameras. From three days of observation of five sheep (706 animal-minutes), foraging behavior was documented. Five hundred and thirty-six still images were sampled, and a plant species list was compiled for each. Each plant species was assigned a score indicating its location, in the ecophysiological sense, on the main environmental gradient. The scores of the plant species present were averaged for each image. Thus, the fine structure of foraging behavior could be studied in parallel with the vegetation of the precise area being grazed. As expected, there was considerable individual variation, and we characterized foraging behavior by quantifying the patterns of interspersion of grazing and non-grazing behaviors. This combination of behavior recording and vegetation classification could enable a numerical analysis of the responses of grazing livestock to vegetation conditions.
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Patel, Rickesh N., and Thomas W. Cronin. "Path integration error and adaptable search behaviors in a mantis shrimp." Journal of Experimental Biology 223, no. 14 (2020): jeb224618. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.224618.
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ABSTRACTMantis shrimp of the species Neogonodactylus oerstedii occupy small burrows in shallow waters throughout the Caribbean. These animals use path integration, a vector-based navigation strategy, to return to their homes while foraging. Here, we report that path integration in N. oerstedii is prone to error accumulated during outward foraging paths and we describe the search behavior that N. oerstedii employs after it fails to locate its home following the route provided by its path integrator. This search behavior forms continuously expanding, non-oriented loops that are centered near the point of search initiation. The radius of this search is scaled to the animal's positional uncertainty during path integration, improving the effectiveness of the search. The search behaviors exhibited by N. oerstedii bear a striking resemblance to search behaviors in other animals, offering potential avenues for the comparative examination of search behaviors and how they are optimized in disparate taxa.
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Singaravelan, Natarajan, and Ganapathy Marimuthu. "In situ feeding tactics of short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) on mango fruits: evidence of extractive foraging in a flying mammal." Journal of Ethology 26, no. 1 (2008): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14818508.
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(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) We report a sequence of behaviors exhibited by the short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx while feeding on fruits of Mangifera indica. They peel off the outer skin to form a feeding area of about 3–6 cm diameter. Such food preparatory behaviors were more pronounced on larger mangoes. Bats competed among themselves to feed on the mangoes that had such feeding areas exposed. Individuals that spent a considerable amount of time on food preparatory behaviors actively secured the fruits. Altogether, these behaviors indicate that Cynopterus bats might have learnt, over evolutionary time, and developed behaviors that facilitate efficient processing and feeding of fruits such as mangoes. It appears that actions exhibited by C. sphinx in peeling off the outer skin of mangoes exemplify ''extractive foraging'', a behavior that is prominently known in large-brained mammals. Thus, our findings will have implications on the distribution and evolution of extractive foraging and ''technical intelligence'' among mammalian lineages.
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Lei, Yanyuan, Yangyang Zhou, Lihua Lü, and Yurong He. "Rhythms in Foraging Behavior and Expression Patterns of the Foraging Gene in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in relation to Photoperiod." Journal of Economic Entomology 112, no. 6 (2019): 2923–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jee/toz175.
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Abstract The foraging gene (for) is associated with foraging and other associated behaviors in social insect species. Photoperiod is known to entrain the rhythmic biological functions of ants; however, how photoperiod might influence the intensity and duration of foraging, and the expression of for, remains unexplored. This study determined the correlation between rhythm in foraging behavior and expression of the foraging gene (Sifor) mRNA in red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren. Foragers were exposed to three photoperiod conditions (12:12 [L:D], 24:0 [L:D], and 0:24 [L:D]) in the laboratory and foraging activities were recorded using a video-computer recording system. Sifor expression in the foragers was tested using real-time reverse-transcription quantitative PCR. Results revealed that foraging activity rhythm and Sifor expression profile were unimodal under all three photoperiod conditions. Levels of foraging activity were associated with photoperiodic modification, a stable phase difference between the onset of activity and the onset of gene expression was discovered. Light-dark transients stimulated foraging activity in 12:12 (L:D). There were significant daily oscillations (amplitude of 0.21 ± 0.08 for 12:12 [L:D], 0.12 ± 0.02 for 24:0 [L:D], and 0.09 ± 0.01 for 0:24 [L:D]) in the expression of Sifor. A positive relationship (r = 0.5903, P &lt; 0.01) was found between the expression level of Sifor and foraging activity, which indicated that Sifor is linked to some extent to foraging behavior. Our results demonstrated that foragers could adjust the rhythms in foraging behavior according to light–dark cycle and suggested that Sifor may play an important role in the response of S. invicta to photoperiod.
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Zhang, Hong, Shuang Shan, Shaohua Gu, et al. "Prior Experience with Food Reward Influences the Behavioral Responses of the Honeybee Apis mellifera and the Bumblebee Bombus lantschouensis to Tomato Floral Scent." Insects 11, no. 12 (2020): 884. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11120884.
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Bee responses to floral scent are usually influenced by both innate biases and prior experience. Honeybees are less attracted than bumblebees to tomato flowers. However, little is known about how tomato floral scent regulates the foraging behaviors of honeybees and bumblebees. In this study, the foraging behaviors of the honeybee Apis mellifera and the bumblebee Bombus lantschouensis on tomato flowers in greenhouses were investigated. Whether the two bee species exhibit different responses to tomato floral scent and how innate biases and prior experience influence bee choice behavior were examined. In the greenhouses, honeybees failed to collect pollen from tomato flowers, and their foraging activities decreased significantly over days. Additionally, neither naïve honeybees nor naïve bumblebees showed a preference for tomato floral scent in a Y-tube olfactometer. However, foraging experience in the tomato greenhouses helped bumblebees develop a strong preference for the scent, whereas honeybees with foraging experience continued to show aversion to tomato floral scent. After learning to associate tomato floral scent with a sugar reward in proboscis extension response (PER) assays, both bee species exhibited a preference for tomato floral scent in Y-tube olfactometers. The findings indicated that prior experience with a food reward strongly influenced bee preference for tomato floral scent.
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Barros, Isabella Brosens, Cristiano Schetini de Azevedo, Cynthia Fernandes Cipreste, et al. "The Impact of Food Enrichment on the Behavior of Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) Kept under Human Care." Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 5, no. 2 (2024): 325–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jzbg5020023.
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The cownose ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) faces vulnerability primarily due to unregulated fishing, resource overexploitation, and habitat degradation. Consequently, individuals maintained under human care play a pivotal role in species conservation, particularly when their welfare is prioritized. Achieving optimal welfare in aquarium settings relies heavily on effective management practices, notably environmental enrichment. However, research on the efficacy of such techniques for cownose rays remains limited. Thus, this study sought to evaluate the impact of various food enrichment items on the behavior of four individuals at the São Paulo Aquarium in Brazil. The project encompassed three phases: baseline, enrichment, and post-enrichment. Enrichment items, designed to mimic the species’ natural foraging behavior, included an ice block containing food, food hidden in vegetables fixed to structures at the bottom of the tank, a tray with substrate and food, and a perforated plastic container with food inside. Behavioral observations utilized focal sampling with instantaneous recording every minute. Results showed increased foraging activity in the post-enrichment phase, whereas swimming increased and following behaviors decreased during the enrichment phase. Additionally, foraging behaviors predominantly occurred near the aquarium bottom. Overall, findings suggest that enrichment items effectively stimulated natural behaviors in cownose rays and were very attractive to the fish, advocating for their integration into species management protocols to enhance welfare.
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Mullin, Stephen J., Robert J. Cooper, and William HN Gutzke. "The foraging ecology of the gray rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides). III. Searching for different prey types in structurally varied habitats." Canadian Journal of Zoology 76, no. 3 (1998): 548–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z97-228.
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Dietary generalists foraging for prey inhabiting different microhabitats may encounter different levels of structural complexity. We examined the effect of variation in prey type on the predation success and behaviors of the semi-arboreal gray rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides) foraging in structurally varied habitats. Individual snakes searched for contents of arboreal birds' nests or for small rodents in enclosures that simulated a bottomland hardwood forest habitat with one of five levels of vegetation density. Latency to prey capture was lower when the snakes were searching for small rodents than when they were searching for birds' nests, and lower for male snakes than for females. Generally, snakes were most successful when searching for prey in enclosures with low levels of structural complexity, and experienced decreased predation success in barren or highly complex habitats. Habitats with low levels of structural complexity may offer the snakes concealment from predation while not obscuring their perception or pursuit of prey. Of behavior durations measured in the trials, over 95% concerned 6 of the 20 behaviors described, and 3 of these occurred more often than the others, regardless of variation in the structural complexity of the habitat. Foraging gray rat snakes exhibited behaviors characteristic of active and ambush foraging strategies that increased their predation success on different prey types in the varied environments.
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MacKenzie, Ellen L., Dave Goulson, and Ellen L. Rotheray. "Investigating the Foraging, Guarding and Drifting Behaviors of Commercial Bombus terrestris." Journal of Insect Behavior 34, no. 5-6 (2021): 334–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10905-021-09790-0.
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AbstractSocial insects have high levels of cooperation and division of labor. In bumble bees this is partly size-based, with larger bees performing tasks outside the nest and smaller bees remaining inside, although bumble bees still display considerable behavioral plasticity. The level of specialization in tasks outside the colony, including foraging, guarding and drifting (entering a foreign colony), is currently unknown for bumble bees. This study aimed to assess division of labor between outside tasks and the degree of specialization in foraging, guarding, and switching colonies in commercially reared bumble bees placed in the field. Nine factory-bought Bombus terrestris colonies were placed on three farms in Sussex, UK, between June and August 2015. Forty workers from each colony were radio-tagged and a reader on the colony entrance recorded the date, time and bee ID as they passed. The length and frequency of foraging trips and guarding behavior were calculated, and drifting recorded. The mean (±SD) length of foraging trips was 45 ± 36 min, and the mean number of foraging trips per day was 7.75 ± 7.71. Low levels of specialization in guarding or foraging behavior were found; however, some bees appeared to guard more frequently than others, and twenty bees were categorized as guards. Five bees appeared to exhibit repeated “stealing” behavior, which may have been a specialist task. The division of labor between tasks was not size-based. It is concluded that commercial bumble bees are flexible in performing outside nest tasks and may have diverse foraging strategies including intra-specific nest robbing.
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Wark, Jason D., and Katherine A. Cronin. "Factors shaping giraffe behavior in U.S. zoos: A multi-institutional study to inform management." PLOS One 20, no. 5 (2025): e0324248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324248.
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Giraffes are one of the most commonly housed megafauna in zoos. Variation across zoos (e.g., geographic location, housing, and husbandry), may be expected to influence giraffe behavior. However, past studies have typically focused on a small number of zoos, limiting generalizable conclusions. Here, we expand upon a recent report on the behavior patterns of zoo-housed giraffes to evaluate the influence of several factors on giraffe behavior. Data were recorded on 66 individuals housed across 18 zoos over a one-year period (n = 8,330 10-min observation sessions). Generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze influences on the following behaviors: browsing, extractive foraging, other feeding, ruminating, oral stereotypies, inactive, and locomotion. Behaviors were first compared across outdoor and indoor housing conditions, then models were built for each behavior and housing condition to evaluate how multiple factors influenced behavior: organizational (habitat size, herd size, presence of public feeding opportunities); environmental (temperature, weather); temporal (time of day); and individual (age, sex). Behavioral differences between outdoor and indoor conditions were observed but were minimal. Overall, environmental and temporal factors influenced giraffe behavior the most, but all factors significantly influenced at least one behavior. Several findings are relevant for giraffe management. For example, giraffes living at zoos with public feeding opportunities spent less time browsing, more time in other feeding behaviors, and showed a trend of increased inactivity, suggesting these programs may negatively influence giraffe behavior. Oral stereotypies were negatively correlated with the time spent browsing or extractive foraging and temperature. This supports husbandry efforts to increase natural foraging behaviors in giraffes and highlights the need to better understand thermal comfort. The amount of outdoor space available was not associated with the time spent locomoting, countering common assumptions. Overall, these findings can begin to inform management decisions and guide additional investigations to identify specific, evidence-based husbandry recommendations.
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Campbell, Dana L. M., Sue Belson, Tim R. Dyall, Jim M. Lea, and Caroline Lee. "Impacts of Rearing Enrichments on Pullets’ and Free-Range Hens’ Positive Behaviors across the Flock Cycle." Animals 12, no. 3 (2022): 280. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12030280.
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Enrichment during the indoor rearing of pullets destined for free-range systems may optimize pullet development including increasing motivated natural behaviors (termed ‘positive behaviors’) including foraging, dust bathing and chick play. Hy-Line Brown® chicks (n = 1700) were floor-reared indoors across 16 weeks with three enrichment treatments (n = 3 pens/treatment): (1) standard control, (2) weekly novel objects—‘novelty’, (3) perching/navigation structures—‘structural’. At 16 weeks, pullets (n = 1386) were transferred to nine identical pens within rearing treatments with outdoor range access from 25 to 65 weeks. Video cameras recorded the pullet pens, adult indoor pens, and outside range. During rearing, observations of play behavior (running, frolicking, wing-flapping, sparring) in chicks at 2, 4 and 6 weeks (total of 432 thirty-second scans: 16 observations × 3 days × 9 pens) showed no overall effect of rearing treatment (p = 0.16). At 11 and 14 weeks only the ‘novelty’ hens were observed to increase their foraging across age (p = 0.009; dust bathing: p = 0.40) (total of 612 thirty-second scans per behavior: 17 observations × 2 days × 2 age points × 9 pens). Observations of adult hens at 26, 31, 41, 50, 60 and 64 weeks showed that the structural hens exhibited overall more dust bathing and foraging than the control hens (both p < 0.04) but both novelty and/or structural hens showed small increases depending on the behavior and location (total of 4104 scans per behavior: 17 observations × 2 days × 6 age points × 9 pens × 2 locations = 3672 + an additional 432 observations following daylight saving). Across age, adult hens differed in the degree of dust bathing performed inside or outside (both p ≤ 0.001) and foraging outside (p < 0.001) but not inside (p = 0.15). For litter-reared pullets, additional enrichments may result in some long-term increases in positive behaviors.
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Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna, and Marcelo Araya-Salas. "Foraging, Fear and Behavioral Variation in a Traplining Hummingbird." Animals 13, no. 12 (2023): 1997. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13121997.
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Traditionally, foraging behavior has been explained as the response to a trade-off between energetic gain from feeding resources and potential costs from concomitant risks. However, an increasing number of studies has shown that this view fails to explain an important fraction of the variation in foraging across a variety of taxa. One potential mechanism that may account for this variation is that various behavioral traits associated with foraging may have different fitness consequences, which may depend on the environmental context. Here, we explored this mechanism by evaluating the foraging efficiency of long-billed hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornis longirostris) with regard to three behavioral traits: (a) exploration (number of feeders used during the foraging visit), (b) risk avoidance (latency to start feeding) and (c) arousal (amount of movements during the foraging visit) in conditions at two different levels of perceived risk (low—control and high—experimental, with a threatening bullet ant model). Foraging efficiency decreased in response to threatening conditions. However, behavioral traits explained additional variation in foraging efficiency in a condition-dependent manner. More exploration was associated with a higher foraging efficiency under control conditions, but this was reversed when exposed to a threat. Regardless of the conditions, arousal was positively associated with foraging efficiency, while risk avoidance was negatively related. Importantly, exploratory behavior and risk avoidance were quite repeatable behaviors, suggesting that they may be related to the intrinsic traits of individuals. Our findings highlight the importance of taking into account additional behavioral dimensions to better understand the foraging strategies of individuals.
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Anderson, Dave, Laurie Shuster, Cindy R. Elliser, et al. "Harbor Porpoise Aggregations in the Salish Sea." Oceans 4, no. 3 (2023): 269–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/oceans4030019.
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Harbor porpoises are typically seen in small groups of 1–3 individuals, with aggregations of 20+ individuals treated as rare events. Since the 1990s, the harbor porpoise population in the Salish Sea has seen a significant recovery, and an increased number of observed aggregations that exceed the more usual small group sizes has been observed in recent years. By combining the observational data of United States and Canadian research organizations, community scientists, and whale watch captains or naturalists, we demonstrate that harbor porpoise aggregations appear to be more common than previously known, with 160 aggregations documented in 2022 alone. Behavioral data also indicate that foraging behaviors are common and social behaviors, like mating, are seen more often during these encounters compared to small groups. Other behaviors that are considered to be rare or unknown were also observed during these encounters, including cooperative foraging and vessel approach. These aggregations are likely important foraging and social gatherings for harbor porpoises. This holistic approach integrating data from two countries and multiple sources provides a population level assessment that more effectively reflects the behavior of harbor porpoises in this region, which do not recognize the socio-political boundaries imposed upon the natural world.
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Güler, Mehmet, and Aynur Lök. "Foraging Behaviors ofHexaplex trunculus(Gastropoda: Muricidae) Juveniles." Journal of Shellfish Research 35, no. 4 (2016): 911–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.2983/035.035.0418.
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Chang, Yang-Chi, Jang-Ching Yan, Jiang-Shiou Hwang, Cheng-Han Wu, and Meng-Tsung Lee. "Data-oriented analyses of ciliate foraging behaviors." Hydrobiologia 666, no. 1 (2010): 223–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0548-5.
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Aplin, Lucy M., Ben C. Sheldon, and Richard McElreath. "Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 30 (2017): 7830–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1621067114.
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Social learning is important to the life history of many animals, helping individuals to acquire new adaptive behavior. However despite long-running debate, it remains an open question whether a reliance on social learning can also lead to mismatched or maladaptive behavior. In a previous study, we experimentally induced traditions for opening a bidirectional door puzzle box in replicate subpopulations of the great titParus major. Individuals were conformist social learners, resulting in stable cultural behaviors. Here, we vary the rewards gained by these techniques to ask to what extent established behaviors are flexible to changing conditions. When subpopulations with established foraging traditions for one technique were subjected to a reduced foraging payoff, 49% of birds switched their behavior to a higher-payoff foraging technique after only 14 days, with younger individuals showing a faster rate of change. We elucidated the decision-making process for each individual, using a mechanistic learning model to demonstrate that, perhaps surprisingly, this population-level change was achieved without significant asocial exploration and without any evidence for payoff-biased copying. Rather, by combining conformist social learning with payoff-sensitive individual reinforcement (updating of experience), individuals and populations could both acquire adaptive behavior and track environmental change.
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Chen, Jingfeng, Yin Qi, Yayong Wu, Xiaocui Wang, and Yezhong Tang. "Covariations between personality behaviors and metabolic/performance traits in an Asian agamid lizard (Phrynocephalus vlangalii)." PeerJ 7 (June 28, 2019): e7205. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7205.
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Ecological factors related to predation risks and foraging play major roles in determining which behavioral traits may mediate life history trade-offs and, therefore, the pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) structure among behavioral, physiological, and life-history traits. It has been proposed that activity/exploration or risk-taking behaviors are more likely to impact resource acquisition for organisms (individuals, populations, and species) foraging on clumped and ephemeral food sources than for organisms foraging on abundant and evenly distributed resources. In contrast, vigilance or freezing behavior would be expected to covary with the pace of life when organisms rely on food items requiring long bouts of handling. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how general this pattern is. We tested this hypothesis by examining the associations between exploration/risk-taking behaviors and metabolic/performance traits for the viviparous agamid lizard, Phrynocephalus vlangalii. This species forages on sparse and patchy food sources. The results showed positive correlations between exploration and endurance capacity, and between bite force and risk-taking willingness. Our current findings, in conjunction with our previous work showed no correlations between freezing behavior and performance in this species, support the idea that behaviors in life-history trade-offs are natural history-dependent in P. vlangalii, and provide evidence that behavioral types play functional roles in life history trade-offs to supporting POLS hypothesis.
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Denryter, Kristin, Rachel C. Cook, John G. Cook, Katherine L. Parker, and Michael P. Gillingham. "State-dependent foraging by caribou with different nutritional requirements." Journal of Mammalogy 101, no. 2 (2020): 544–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyaa003.
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Abstract Foraging by animals is hypothesized to be state-dependent, that is, varying with physiological condition of individuals. State often is defined by energy reserves, but state also can reflect differences in nutritional requirements (e.g., for reproduction, lactation, growth, etc.). Testing hypotheses about state-dependent foraging in ungulates is difficult because fine-scale data needed to evaluate these hypotheses generally are lacking. To evaluate whether foraging by caribou (Rangifer tarandus) was state-dependent, we compared bite and intake rates, travel rates, dietary quality, forage selection, daily foraging time, and foraging strategies of caribou with three levels of nutritional requirements (lactating adults, nonlactating adults, subadults 1–2 years old). Only daily foraging times and daily nutrient intakes differed among nutritional classes of caribou. Lactating caribou foraged longer per day than nonlactating caribou—a difference that was greatest at the highest rates of intake, but which persisted even when intake was below requirements. Further, at sites where caribou achieved high rates of intake, caribou in each nutritional class continued foraging even after satisfying daily nutritional requirements, which was consistent with a foraging strategy to maximize energy intake. Foraging time by caribou was partially state-dependent, highlighting the importance of accounting for physiological state in studies of animal behavior. Fine-scale foraging behaviors may influence larger-scale behavioral strategies, with potential implications for conservation and management.
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Ohnishi, Kei. "Noncooperative Population-Based Search Relying on Spatial and/or Temporal Scale-Free Behaviors of Individuals." Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics 36, no. 3 (2024): 618–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2024.p0618.
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Although individuals of species engaging in cooperative foraging behaviors are often modeled as swarm intelligence optimization algorithms, there are also several species whose individuals take noncooperative foraging behaviors. Some such species exhibit common behaviors, which we call scale-free behaviors in this study. A type of scale-free behavior is spatial scale-free behavior, in which the moving distance of an individual from the present food source follows a power-law distribution. Second, the staying duration of an individual at the current food source follows a power-law distribution, and this behavior is called temporal scale-free behavior. We propose two types of noncooperative population-based search methods, based on the two types of scale-free behaviors. We also conducted simulations to compare the two methods, assuming static and dynamic environments in which the position of the food source did not change and changed, respectively. The simulation results showed that temporal scale-free behavior is suitable for specific problems in which individuals around the global optimum can be eliminated probabilistically, and spatial scale-free behavior is suitable for problems in which such elimination never occurs. In other words, the two types of scale-free behaviors are complementary. Next, we first assume problems for which we cannot know if the probabilistic elimination of individuals occurs in advance, and then propose a search method that selects an appropriate type of scale-free behavior for individuals during the search. The simulation results showed that this method demonstrates a good search performance, on average, for such problems.