| Autor: |
Roeleke M; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.; Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany., Schlägel UE; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany., Gallagher C; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany., Pufelski J; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany., Blohm T; Private Researcher, 17291 Prenzlau, Germany., Nathan R; Movement Ecology Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190501 Jerusalem, Israel., Toledo S; Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, 6997801 Tel Aviv, Israel., Jeltsch F; Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research 14195 Berlin, Germany., Voigt CC; Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany. |
| Abstrakt: |
Animals that depend on ephemeral, patchily distributed prey often use public information to locate resource patches. The use of public information can lead to the aggregation of foragers at prey patches, a mechanism known as local enhancement. However, when ephemeral resources are distributed over large areas, foragers may also need to increase search efficiency, and thus apply social strategies when sampling the landscape. While sensory networks of visually oriented animals have already been confirmed, we lack an understanding of how acoustic eavesdropping adds to the formation of sensory networks. Here we radio-tracked a total of 81 aerial-hawking bats at very high spatiotemporal resolution during five sessions over 3 y, recording up to 19 individuals simultaneously. Analyses of interactive flight behavior provide conclusive evidence that bats form temporary mobile sensory networks by adjusting their movements to neighboring conspecifics while probing the airspace for prey. Complementary agent-based simulations confirmed that the observed movement patterns can lead to the formation of mobile sensory networks, and that bats located prey faster when networking than when relying only on local enhancement or searching solitarily. However, the benefit of networking diminished with decreasing group size. The combination of empirical analyses and simulations elucidates how animal groups use acoustic information to efficiently locate unpredictable and ephemeral food patches. Our results highlight that declining local populations of social foragers may thus suffer from Allee effects that increase the risk of collapses under global change scenarios, like insect decline and habitat degradation. |
