Effects of group size and personality on social foraging: the distribution of sheep across patches
| Autor: | Pablo Michelena, J. E. McLeod, Hans W. Erhard, A. M. Sibbald |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Partenaires INRAE |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
2. Zero hunger Ideal free distribution Ecology media_common.quotation_subject [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] 05 social sciences Foraging Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Attraction Intraspecific competition Competition (biology) Group cohesiveness Grazing 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Animal Science and Zoology 050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Spatial organization media_common |
| Zdroj: | Behavioral Ecology Behavioral Ecology, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2009, 20 (1), pp.145-152. ⟨10.1093/beheco/arn126⟩ |
| ISSN: | 1045-2249 1465-7279 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/beheco/arn126⟩ |
| Popis: | Group cohesion in social animals foraging in patchy environments depends on 2 opposite forces, intraspecific competition, and attraction. The decision to leave or stay in a group may vary according to the individual personality. We investigated the role of personality when feeding competition increases as a result of increasing group size. Individuals referred as ‘‘bold’’ and ‘‘shy’’ were identified from an indoor exploration test according to their propensity to leave the group to explore a novel environment, using 12 novel objects placed at increasing distances from the group. Groups of 2, 4, 6, or 8 shy or bold sheep were tested in 45 3 5‐m grass arenas, with one 5 3 5‐m patch of preferred vegetation at each end. Sheep grazed on or close to these patches, but the number grazing the patches seldom reached more than 4‐5 individuals, suggesting that crowding might affect foraging at the highest densities. The smallest groups grazed together on the same patch, but there was an increasing likelihood of splitting into subgroups as group size increased, with equal-sized subgroups most commonly grazing the 2 patches simultaneously. This effect was greatest in bold sheep, which tended to split into subgroups at smaller group sizes than shy sheep. This study provides new insight into the mechanisms by which group-living herbivores distribute themselves across patchy resources in a way that minimizes interference competition and demonstrates the importance of individual variability for spatial organization at the level of the group. Key words: bold, grazing, ideal free distribution, Ovis aries, shy, social cohesion. [Behav Ecol] |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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