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Here one can find the data files and code underlying the analysis of Schabacker et al concerning the 2019 field study on the relationship between exploration behaviour and migration in a partial migrant (Nyctalus noctula). Exploration behaviour was assessed using an in situ novel environment assay, while migration strategy was estimated using stable isotope analysis.

Resource availability and sociality are tightly coupled. Sociality facilitates resource access in a wide range of animal species. Simultaneously, resource availability may change sociality. However, experimental evidence for resource-driven social changes in the wild, beyond local aggregations at the resource, remains scarce. Moreover, it is largely unclear how potential changes in sociality relate to the social foraging benefits obtained by individual group members. Here, we recorded immediate and prolonged changes in social dynamics following ephemeral food availability in 18 mixed-sex Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) groups in natural rainforest pools. Using a counter-balanced within-group design, the social associations within each group was observed before, between and after ephemeral patch availability for two consecutive days. We show that groups increased their time spent socially two-fold following ephemeral food patch, but not control (empty) patch, availability. Groups with stronger foraging motivation, measured as the average proportion of fish feeding, showed a stronger increase in sociality. This resource-induced increase in sociality was still detectable the next day. Increase in the time spent socially by a group also positively correlated with the more frequent arrival at detected food patches for individual members of motivated groups, which, in turn, correlated strongly with individual food consumption. Our study causally demonstrates that changes in ephemeral resource availability can induce rapid, substantial, and prolonged changes in the social dynamics of wild fish and that this change positively correlated with individual foraging success. Further research is needed to investigate whether this social change is a cause or consequence of individual foraging success and why some groups respond more strongly than others.

A large-scale experiment demonstrates sex differences in cooperation and competition that can explain group size variation in ostriches.

Modern wildlife management has dual mandates to reduce human-wildlife conflict (HWC) for burgeoning populations of people while supporting conservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem functions it affords. These opposing goals can sometimes be achieved with non-lethal intervention tools that promote coexistence between people and wildlife. One such tool is conditioned taste aversion (CTA), the application of an evolutionary relevant learning paradigm in which an animal associates a transitory illness to the taste, odor or other characteristic of a particular food item, resulting in a long-term change in its perception of palatability. Despite extensive support for the power of CTA in laboratory studies, field studies have exhibited mixed results, which erodes manager confidence in using this tool. Here we review the literature on CTA in the context of wildlife conservation and management and discuss how success could be increased with more use of learning theory related to CTA, particularly selective association, stimulus salience, stimulus generalization, and extinction of behavior. We apply learning theory to the chronological stages of CTA application in the field and illustrate them by synthesizing and reviewing past applications of CTA in HWC situations. Specifically, we discuss (1) when CTA is suitable, (2) how aversion can be most effectively (and safely) established, (3) how generalization of aversion from treated to untreated food can be stimulated and (4) how extinction of aversion can be avoided. For each question, we offer specific implementation suggestions and methods for achieving them, which we summarize in a decision-support table that might be used by managers to guide their use of CTA across a range of contexts. Additionally, we highlight promising ideas that may further improve the effectiveness of CTA field applications in the future. With this review, we aspire to demonstrate the diverse past applications of CTA as a non-lethal tool in wildli

Baker & Winkler make a thought-provoking contribution to the discussion of what role captive animals could play in nature conservation and how we could get there through rewilding. There certainly is potential for captive Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, to become targets of conservation efforts, but there are also many questions: (1) How much do (behavioral) traits of captive-origin animals differ from their free conspecifics? (2) What predicts the likelihood and strength of social reintegration of captive animals into free populations? (3) How much of an Asian elephant's functional role in the environment can captive animals still fulfill and how may this influence the evolutionary dynamics of Asian elephant populations? These questions are challenging, but also an opportunity to gain crucial knowledge and insight into the elephant's ecological role, as well as our own.