Intake rate at differently scaled heterogeneous food distributions explained by the ability of tactile‐foraging mallard to concentrate foraging effort within profitable areas

Abstract

The ability to respond to spatial heterogeneity in food abundance depends on the scale of the food distribution and the foraging scale of the forager. The aim of this study is to illustrate that a foraging scale exists, and that at larger scaled food distributions foragers benefit from the ability to subdivide a continuous (non‐discrete) heterogeneous environment into profitable and non‐profitable areas. We recorded search patterns of mallards Anas plathyrhynchos foraging in shallow water on cryptic prey items (millet seeds), distributed at different scales. A small magnet attached to the lower mandible allowed us to record in great detail the position and movements of the bill tip within a feeding tray underlain by magnet sensors. Instantaneous intake rate was determined in a subsequent experiment. We successfully determined the foraging scale (about 2×2 cm), defined as the scale above which foragers do respond (coarse scaled distribution) and below which foragers do not respond (fine scaled distribution) to spatial heterogeneity, by concentrating foraging effort within areas of high food density. A response resulted in a significantly higher intake rate, compared to a homogeneous distribution with an equal overall density. Unlike systematic search cell revisitation was common in trials, and at coarse scaled food distributions even slightly (but significantly) more frequently observed than predicted for random search. Mallards respond to food capture by restricting displacement (area restricted search) at food distributions that are considered to be clumped for the forager (large scaled coarse distributions). We argue that partitioning the environment at the foraging scale in itself could be a mechanism to concentrate foraging efforts within profitable areas, because mallard were able to respond to heterogeneity at coarse scaled food distributions even when non‐clumped (i.e. without conducting area restricted search).