Increasing vulnerability to predation increases preference for the scrounger foraging tactic

Abstract

When animals forage in groups, individuals can search for food themselves (producer tactic) or they can search for and join other individuals that have located food (scrounger tactic). The scrounger tactic may provide greater antipredator benefits than the producer tactic because “scroungers” hop with their heads up and tend to occupy central positions in a group, whereas “producers” hop with their heads down and tend to occupy edge positions. We tested whether increasing an individual's vulnerability to predation (using wing-loading manipulations) causes an increased preference for the scrounger tactic in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Wing-loading manipulations were effective at increasing focal individuals' perception of vulnerability to predation; treatment individuals increased their total time allocated to vigilance, whereas control individuals did not. Treatment individuals also increased their use of the scrounger tactic (proportion of hops with head up) and scrounged a greater proportion of patches, whereas control individuals exhibited no changes. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the scrounger tactic confers greater antipredator benefits than the producer tactic, although whether antipredator benefits are achieved through differences in head orientation, spatial position, or both, remains unclear. Our finding that individuals adjust their use of the scrounger tactic according to changes in their phenotype provides evidence for phenotype-limited allocation strategies in producer–scrounger games.