Abstract:
What do seabirds perceive about the world? How do they do so? And how do they use the information available to them to make foraging decisions? Social cues provide seabirds with information about the location of prey. This can, of course, be passive and not involve higher-order cognitive processes (e.g. simple conspecific or heterospecific attraction). However, seabirds display many behaviours that promote learning and the transmission of information between individuals: the vast majority of seabirds are colonial living, have an extended juvenile phase that affords them time to learn, routinely form intra- and interspecific associations, and can flexibly deploy a combination of foraging tactics. It is worth evaluating their foraging interactions in light of this. This review describes how seabirds use social information both at the colony and at sea to forage, and discusses the variation that exists both across species and amongst individuals. It is clear that social interactions are a critical and beneficial component of seabird foraging, with most of the variation concerning the way and extent to which social information is used, rather than whether it is used. While it may seem counterintuitive that large groups of potential competitors congregating at a patch can result in foraging gains, such aggregations can alter species dynamics in ways that promote coexistence. This review explores how competitive interference at a patch can be mitigated by behavioural modifications and niche segregation. Utilising others for foraging success (e.g. via social cues and facilitation at a patch) is likely to make population declines particularly damaging to seabirds if the quantity or quality of their social foraging interactions is reduced. Environmental changes have the potential to disrupt their social networks and thus, how these species obtain food and transfer information.
摘要:
海鸟对世界有什么看法?他们是如何做到的?他们如何利用可用的信息做出觅食决定?社交线索为海鸟提供有关猎物位置的信息。这个可以,当然,是被动的,不涉及高阶认知过程(例如简单的特定或异质吸引)。然而,海鸟表现出许多促进个人之间学习和信息传递的行为:绝大多数海鸟是殖民地生活的,有一个延长的青少年阶段,让他们有时间学习,常规形成种内和种间关联,并可以灵活部署觅食战术的组合。鉴于此,值得评估它们的觅食相互作用。这篇综述描述了海鸟如何在殖民地和海上利用社会信息来觅食,并讨论了跨物种和个体之间存在的变异。很明显,社会互动是海鸟觅食的关键和有益的组成部分,关于社会信息使用的方式和程度的大部分变化,而不是它是否被使用。虽然一大群潜在的竞争对手聚集在一个补丁上可能会导致觅食收益,这似乎是违反直觉的,这种聚集可以以促进共存的方式改变物种动态。这篇综述探讨了如何通过行为改变和利基隔离来减轻补丁上的竞争干扰。如果海鸟的社会觅食互动的数量或质量降低,利用他人觅食成功(例如通过社会线索和在补丁处的便利)可能会使人口下降对海鸟特别有害。环境变化有可能破坏他们的社交网络,因此,这些物种如何获得食物和传递信息。