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Datasets for the paper "Track and dive-based movement metrics do not predict the number of prey encountered by a marine predator". Datasets are described in the file "readme.txt".

© 2018 The Authors A theoretical and applied literature has suggested that foragers search using Lévy flights, since Lévy flights can maximize the efficiency of search in the absence of information on the location of randomly distributed prey. Foragers, however, often have available to them at least some information about the distribution of prey, gained either through evolved mechanisms, experience and memory, or social transmission of information. As such, we might expect selection for heuristics that make use of such information to further improve the efficiency of random search. Here we present a general model of random search behavior that includes as special cases: area-restricted search, correlated random walks, Brownian search, and Lévy flights. This generative model allows foragers to adjust search parameters based on encounter-conditional and other heuristics. Using a simulation model, we demonstrate the efficiency gains of these search heuristics, and illustrate the resulting differences in the distributions of step-size and heading angle change they imply, relative to Lévy flights. We conclude by presenting a statistical model that can be fit to empirical data and a set of testable, quantitative predictions that contrast our model of adaptive search with the Lévy flight foraging hypothesis.

Divergent foraging strategies may emerge within a population due to a combination of physiological and environmental factors, yet in order to persist, neither strategy should offer a consistent selective advantage over the alternative in the long term. Murphy’s petrels Pterodroma ultima from Henderson Island (24°20’S, 128°20’W) in the South Pacific Ocean are highly vagile, and exhibit two distinct foraging trip types during incubation; similar proportions of birds undertake either looping trips around the South Pacific Gyre to waters off Peru (hereafter “East”) or trips south-west of the colony towards the Subtropical Front (“South”) (maximum ranges of c. 3,800 or 2,000 km from the colony, respectively). However, the relative benefits of the distinct trip types remain unclear. Through tracking birds with GPS and salt-water immersion loggers in 2015, the fine-scale foraging behaviour was examined for East (trip durations: 14.1 – 19.8 d, maximum ranges: 2,387 – 4,823 km) and South trips (12.9 – 25.8 d, 1,565 – 1,991 km). Data on behaviour classified from GPS tracks, the number of wet bouts per hour (a proxy for landing rates) and wind speeds, were used to distinguish two distinct foraging modes: birds on East trips spent more time in directed movement, whereas those on South trips spent a greater proportion of time in area-restricted search (ARS) behaviour. East trips were associated with higher overall mass gain; and wet bouts occurred in equal proportions during directed movement and ARS behaviour. This suggests that in unproductive marine environments, it may be more profitable to maximise area covered to increase the chances of encountering prey. Analysis of lower-resolution geolocator data (collected from 2011 to 2014) indicated that individuals were largely consistent in trip type between years. Since birds that conducted East trips were 19% lighter on departure from the colony and experienced more frequent tailwinds on foraging trips, we speculate that these birds may benefit from reduced movement costs, whilst also experiencing reduced competition for foraging opportunities.

Animal personality is the consistent behavioural differences among individuals across context and time. It shapes individual perceptions of risk and rewards, and in doing so, it may be an important factor in affecting how animals value, use, and respond to their environment. Urban habitat and naturally vegetated habitat, two vastly different environments, offer very different risks and rewards, and thus provide a powerful opportunity to understand the drivers of variation in space use among individuals. The urban landscape also presents animals with novel challenges, and only some wildlife — the urban exploiters — adapt successfully to these conditions. One explanation for the success of urban exploiters is their capacity to solve problems, because this capacity may help such animals to cope with novel challenges. Within a population, space use, movement and problem-solving capability can all differ among individuals; animal personality could provide one important basis for explaining some of this inter-individual variation. My overarching aim was to investigate the link between animal personality and space use, as well as problem-solving performance, in urban exploiters. I used free-ranging common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) as a model to understand how personality affects individual movement and space use across an urban-woodland boundary, and how it affects problem-solving in a highly urbanised environment. Together, my results provide evidence that animal personality helps explain how individuals in a population differentially interact with their environment, and their capacity to learn in novel environments. These insights help advance our understanding of the mechanisms behind how, and how well, individuals with different behavioural traits cope with artificial or novel environments, including the ways in which they adapt to urban habitat.

Many foraging animals find food using composite random search strategies, which consist of intensive and extensive search modes. Models of composite search can generate predictions about how optimal foragers should behave in each search mode, and how they should determine when to switch between search modes. Most of these models assume that foragers use resource encounters to decide when to switch between search modes. Empirical observations indicate that a variety of organisms use non-directional sensory cues to identify areas that warrant intensive search. These cues are not precise enough to allow a forager to directly orient itself to a resource, but can be used as a criterion to determine the appropriate search mode. As a potential example, a forager might use olfactory information as a non-directional cue. Even if scent is too imprecise for the forager to immediately locate a specific food item, it might inform the forager that the area is worth searching carefully. We developed a model of composite search based on non-directional sensory cues. With simulations, we compared the search efficiencies of composite foragers that use resource encounters as their mode-switching criterion with those that use non-directional sensory cues. We identified optimal search patterns and mode-switching criteria on a variety of resource distributions, characterized by different levels of resource aggregation and density. On all resource distributions, foraging strategies based on the non-directional sensory criterion were more efficient than those based on the resource encounter criterion. Strategies based on the non-directional sensory criterion were also more robust to changes in resource distribution. Our results suggest that current assumptions about the role of resource encounters in models of optimal composite search should be re-examined. The search strategies predicted by our model can help bridge the gap between random search theory and traditional patch-use foraging theory.

Behavior by a foraging seabird during the breeding season can be examined by analyzing time invested throughout the foraging route to determine the presence of Area-Restricted Search (ARS) as well as other characteristics related to the shape of the foraging path and activity (flying, resting or diving). Forty-six Imperial Cormorants (Phalacrocorax atriceps), 18 males and 28 females breeding at Punta León, Argentina (43°04´S; 64°2´W), were fitted with GPS loggers recording one foraging trip (sampling interval: 1 second) in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Trip duration was longer, on average, for females (6.3 ± 1.9 h) than males (5.3 ± 1.6 h) (Mann-Whitney U test z 1,45 = 2.23, P = 0.026), but year had no significant effect on any of the path characteristics. ARS was detected in forty-three individuals, twenty-two of which made smaller scaled searches nested within larger ARS areas. Search scale was not correlated to maximum distance reached and did not differ between sexes nor years. Cluster analysis separated four types of behavior: short direct return trips (N = 7), long direct return trips (N = 31), random flight searches (N = 6) and loops (N = 2), with each behavioral type present in both sexes. Behavioral variability within a population may be due to differences in targeted prey type and spatio-temporal stability during the season, as well as to individual physiological constraints and life-history traits linked to how individuals search for food at sea. Fil: Harris, Sabrina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina Fil: Quintana, Flavio Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina Fil: Raya Rey, Andrea Nélida. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentina

International audience; Inter- and intraspecific competition can lead to resource partitioning in sympatric species, processes likely affected by environmental productivity and population size. We investigated the foraging behaviour and diet of masked (Sula dactylatra) and red-footed (S. sula) boobies at Tromelin Island, western Indian Ocean, to examine the role of resource partitioning in the foraging strategies of these sympatric species in an extreme oligotrophic environment. We compared our results to published studies with differing environmental conditions or population sizes. We used GPS loggers and Argos transmitters to track foraging movements and used time-depth recorders to estimate dive depths. Masked boobies travelled further and at faster rates than red-footed boobies, and sexes did not differ in foraging behaviour. Based on randomization tests, the foraging range of each species (95% utilization distribution; UD) overlapped significantly. However, at core foraging areas (50% and 25% UD), interspecific segregation was greater than expected by chance alone. No intraspecific spatial segregation was detected between sexes. Environmental characteristics of area-restricted search zones differed between species, but not sexes; masked boobies utilized warmer, deeper, and less windy oceanic environments than red-footed boobies. Masked boobies attained greater diving depths than red-footed boobies and consumed primarily flying fish, whereas red-footed boobies consumed mostly squid. Red-footed and masked boobies breeding in the extreme oligotrophic environment near Tromelin demonstrated greater dietary partitioning differences in foraging ranges compared to a less oligotrophic environment. This suggests that environmental productivity may play a role in processes of resource partitioning in these sympatric species.

International audience; When foraging in a landscape, predators choose travelling directions according to their immediate knowledge of prey distribution within their perceptual fields and, when appropriate, to their past foraging experience. A substantial part of foraging theory is based on patch use in spatially implicit domains, and rarely has it considered foraging paths involving directional choices driven by memory and perception. Using a model mixing directed and random movements of a predator, we investigated how perception range and duration of spatial memory influence the long-term intake rate of a central place forager depending on prey spatial distribution. We found that intake rate increased and eventually saturated with increasing perception range regardless of prey spatial distribution. In contrast, the effect of spatial memory duration was mediated by the level of prey spatial aggregation. Assuming that an increase in memory or perception abilities has a cost, we found that it was not beneficial to possess simultaneously a wide perception range and a long-term spatial memory when prey distribution was aggregated. Moreover, when looking at the functional response of predators with different ‘cognitive strategies', we found that those relying mainly on memory were limited by the prey global densities while those relying mainly on perception were limited by the level of prey aggregation. These results suggest that cognitive strategies might have evolved as a response to the prey spatial distribution and that prey spatial aggregation, not only prey global density, should be considered an important component of the functional response.

The functional response is a fundamental model of the relationship between consumer intake rate and resource abundance. The random walk is a fundamental model of animal movement and is well approximated by simple diffusion. Both models are central to our understanding of numerous ecological processes but are rarely linked in ecological theory. To derive a synthetic model, we draw on the common logical premise underlying these models and show how the diffusion and consumption rates of consumers depend on elementary attributes of naturally occurring consumer-resource interactions: the abundance, spatial aggregation, and traveling speed of resources as well as consumer handling time and directional persistence. We show that resource aggregation may lead to increased consumer diffusion and, in the case of mobile resources, reduced consumption rate. Resource-dependent movement patterns have traditionally been attributed to area-restricted search, reflecting adaptive decision making by the consumer. Our synthesis provides a simple alternative hypothesis that such patterns could also arise as a by-product of statistical movement mechanics.

A heterogeneous environment includes several levels of resource aggregation. Individuals do not respond in the same way to this heterogeneity depending on the scale at which they perceive it, and develop different foraging tactics accordingly. The development of methods to analyse animal movements has enabled the study of foraging tactics at several scales. Nevertheless, applied to large vertebrates, these methods have generally been used at large scales, such as for migration trips or the study of marine patches several kilometres large. In this study, we applied a recent method, the First-Passage Time analysis, based on a measure of the foraging effort along the path, to a much finer scale, i.e. under 500 meters. We used 30 daily paths of highly sedentary roe deer females. We modified the initial method, developed by Fauchald and Tveraa (2003), to detect a multi-patch use of the habitat. First-Passage Time analysis results showed that most of the female roe deer exploited their home range as a patchy resource, ranging from 1 to 5 areas of intensive use in their home range. These areas were identified as the most attractive sites within the roe deer female home range. Moreover, this method allowed us to rank the attractive areas according to the time spent in each area. Coupled with habitat selection analysis to identify what makes these areas attractive, the First-Passage Time analysis should offer a suitable tool for landscape ecology and management.