Foraging Groups Research Articles

Recruiters and Joiners: Using Optimal Skew Theory to Predict Group Size and the Division of Resources within Groups of Social Foragers

Recruiters and Joiners: Using Optimal Skew Theory to Predict Group Size and the Division of Resources within Groups of Social Foragers

Multi-Partner Urochordate Chimeras Outperform Two-Partner Chimerical Entities

While many species of animals form only social or foraging intraspecific groups, a variety of taxa of marine invertebrates may further establish tissue unions (natural chimeras) between conspecifics. A model system is the tunicate Botryllus schlosseri, in which histocompatibility is governed by shared alleles on a single, highly polymorphic fusibility locus. Proposed benefits that have been attributed to natural chimerism have not been confirmed in this model system. Furthermore, laboratory studies on bichimeras, each consisting of two partners, have shown that fusion is usually followed by morphological elimination (resorption) of one partner, However, freely circulating stem cells from the subordinate' partner in resorption may parasitize the soma and germline of the winner. Here we show that multi-partner chimeras form more stable and vigorous entities than bichimeras. Multi-chimeras grow faster, reach larger sizes, do not fragment, reduce incidence of morphological resorption and show other characteristics of more equilibriated entities. It is proposed that in these multi-partner entitites, the different intraspecific conflicts alleviate each other, generating an improved entity where natural selection may act on group' level instead of on each individual genome. The state of multi-chimerism incurs, however, some costs such as a one quarter reduction in the potential maximum chimerical size as compared to bichimeras.

Covariates of Private Time Preference: A Pilot Study Among the Tsimane' Indians of the Bolivian Rain Forest

A pilot study with 257 adult (16+ years) Tsimane' Indians, a group of horticulturalists and foragers, in the Bolivian rain forest was done to test hypotheses about the socioeconomic and demographic covariates of time preference. Subjects were asked to make a choice between receiving one candy now or two candies at the end of an interview that lasted 1.5 to 2 h. Results of a multivariate probit regression suggest that education was associated with greater desire for immediate gratification and illness was associated with greater likelihood of willingness to wait. Age, sex, nutritional status, income, and wealth played a weak role in willingness to delay gratification.

Agonistic Behavior and Cuticular Hydrocarbon Phenotypes of Colonies of Reticulitermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) from Northern California

Reticulitermes in northern California is supposed to be represented by R. hesperus Banks and R tibialis Banks, yet at least 5 distinct cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes have been characterized. Three hydrocarbon phenotypes from the Institute of Forest Genetics near Placerville. CA, and 3 cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes from 2 separate sites in Marin County were used to characterize interactions of foraging groups or colonies at each site. Pairings from the same foraging group or different foraging groups of the same colony rarely resulted in immediate aggression and never resulted in high mortality. Pairings of workers from different foraging groups of the same cuticular hydrocarbon phenotype from either the Placerville or Marin sites resulted in few bouts (8 and 15%, respectively ) with immediate aggression, but after 24 h, mortality was high in 56 and 81% of the bouts, respectively. Pairings from different cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes resulted in immediate aggression 48.8 and 61.5% of the time, respectively, nearly all of these (>99%) resulted in high mortality after 24 h. These results suggest that these Reticulitermes recognize hydrocarbon phenotypes, and can differentiate colony mates and alien workers within a cuticular hydrocarbon phenotype. Because kin discriminal ion suggests genetic relatedness among individuals, this bioassay will be useful for determining the association of foraging groups in ecological studies of Reticulitermes colonies in northern California and indirectly may indicate relatedness among colonies of the same hydrocarbon phenotype.

Diet and foraging group size in the yellow mongoose: a comparison with the suricate and the bat-eared fox

The diet of yellow mongooses Cynictis penicillata – solitary or pair foragers – are compared to that of group-foraging suricates or meerkats Suricata suricatta and bat-eared foxes Otocyon megalotis in southern Africa. It is shown that the diet of yellow mongooses in the Free State and Northern Cape Province differ between predominantly wet years (main prey: Isoptera, represented by harvester termites Trinervitermes trinervoides and Hodotermes mossambicus) and drier years (Coleoptera, represented by four families). Although often sympatric, and with diets comparable as to prey taxa utilised and their rank order, foraging group size of yellow mongooses are much smaller than those of suricates and bat-eared foxes. It is argued that phylogenetic inertia, i.e. the inability to better utilize the availability of abundant, clumped prey – such as harvester termites – by resorting to group foraging, can explain the small foraging group size of yellow mongooses.

Modelling responses in vigilance rates to arrivals to and departures from a group of foragers

Feeding birds must balance food gathering against predation risk. Group foraging is generally considered as a strategy for optimizing this trade-off. Previous modelling studies assumed that group sizes were static and that all group members are informed of an imminent predator attack if one of them detects it. These models implicitly assumed that birds could estimate group size, and adopt a fixed rate of anti-predator vigilance scanning. Recent empirical results suggest that group sizes are generally dynamic rather than static and the group members are often unaware of another's detection of imminent attack. It has also been observed that vigilance rates are not static but change after the arrival or departure of another. Here, we present a model which allows feeding-group size (and individuals' vigilance rates) to vary dynamically, and investigate the implications which this has for the optimum trade-off between foraging and avoiding predation. We find that newly arrived birds should generally be the most vigilant and that vigilance rates should decrease after the arrival of another into the feeding group but increase after a departure. Vigilance rates should increase as the cost of predator attack increases or if the reward rate from foraging decreases. Vigilance should increase if predator attacks are more common but decrease if predators require a longer time undetected to approach the feeding group. In common with many experimental studies, we observe that vigilance rates decrease as the average number of birds feeding together increases. Hence, the main conclusion of previous works (that foraging in groups is an effective strategy for balancing the conflicting pressures of foraging and avoiding predation) is obtained by our model, despite relaxing several previously used assumptions. Finally, we discuss some of the open questions related to group vigilance and how extensions to our modelling framework might be used to address these.

Modelling responses in vigilance rates to arrivals to and departures from a group of foragers

Feeding birds must balance food gathering against predation risk. Group foraging is generally considered as a strategy for optimizing this trade-off. Previous modelling studies assumed that group sizes were static and that all group members are informed of an imminent predator attack if one of them detects it. These models implicitly assumed that birds could estimate group size, and adopt a fixed rate of anti-predator vigilance scanning. Recent empirical results suggest that group sizes are generally dynamic rather than static and the group members are often unaware of another's detection of imminent attack. It has also been observed that vigilance rates are not static but change after the arrival or departure of another. Here, we present a model which allows feeding-group size (and individuals' vigilance rates) to vary dynamically, and investigate the implications which this has for the optimum trade-off between foraging and avoiding predation. We find that newly arrived birds should generally be the most vigilant and that vigilance rates should decrease after the arrival of another into the feeding group but increase after a departure. Vigilance rates should increase as the cost of predator attack increases or if the reward rate from foraging decreases. Vigilance should increase if predator attacks are more common but decrease if predators require a longer time undetected to approach the feeding group. In common with many experimental studies, we observe that vigilance rates decrease as the average number of birds feeding together increases. Hence, the main conclusion of previous works (that foraging in groups is an effective strategy for balancing the conflicting pressures of foraging and avoiding predation) is obtained by our model, despite relaxing several previously used assumptions. Finally, we discuss some of the open questions related to group vigilance and how extensions to our modelling framework might be used to address these.

Individual foraging, activity level and longevity in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii in Costa Rica (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae)

Foraging behaviour of individually marked workers of Melipona beecheii (Meliponinae) was monitored in Costa Rica to investigate individual specialisation for different materials and how this influences foraging longevity. The majority of the individuals harvested one commodity (pollen, nectar or resin) during a single day. Half of the age-marked foragers specialised on nectar or pollen during their complete foraging career, the other half collected two or three commodities. Most members of the latter group switched daily from early morning pollen (or resin) collecting to nectar collecting. Life-long foraging of one-material collectors was not more efficient than that of two-material collectors. The groups of foragers differed significantly in activity patterns and longevity: activity was traded off with longevity. Nectar foragers were active all day and died after an average of 3 foraging days. Pollen foragers were active for 1-3 hours per day, but lived for 12 days on average. However, pollen foragers and nectar foragers performed a similar number of flights in their career.¶How bees become pollen, nectar or mixed foragers is not clear. Age and performance of pre-foraging hive tasks did not influence forager specialisation in M. beecheii.

The Mikea Hunter-Gatherers of Southwest Madagascar: Ecology and Socioeconomics

This paper provides an overview of the habitat, natural resources, history, and socioeconomy of a small group of foragers called the Mikea who live in a semiarid forest environment of southwestern Madagascar. The flora and fauna of this forest are made up largely of rare, endemic species to Madagascar and the fragile environment is at risk of destruction by the process of desertification, particularly slash-and-burn agriculture and overgrazing by livestock. It is hypothesized that the Mikea persist as hunter-gatherers as an ecological and socioeconomic adaptation employing resource partitioning and mutualistic specialization with neighboring agropastoralists. Suggestions are proposed how to mitigate the detrimental affects of slash-and-burn cultivation.

Group Foraging, Gain and the Finder's Advantage

Individuals in a foraging group obeying information sharing make use of knowledge of food-patch locations found by others. A patch found by one will also be exploited by other members in the group. We are interested in the accumulation of gain of the individual finding the patch, the finder. Finding a patch of prey can lead to asymmetries in foraging success when finders get a larger share of the patch than others. Using renewal processes we have modelled this finder's advantage in gain accumulation and derived expectation and variance of gain. Not surprisingly, the longer the finder's privileged time in exploitation of the food patch, the more its gain resembles that of a solitary forager, while with short finder's time finder's gain is close to that of another non-finding group member. Consider, however, that patch-finding ability might be linked with individual characteristics, some being better finders (producers) than others. If producers are foraging among less skilled finders (scroungers), both the within-patch and between-patch components of gain variance are larger for the producers than if they foraged in a group of individuals of equal patch-finding ability. So, if the foragers are risk-averse, the expectation is for patch-finding skill assorted foraging groups.

Division of labor between scouts and recruits: genetic influence and mechanisms

Every recruitment system in social insects requires some individuals that serve as scouts, foragers that search independently for food sources. It is not well understood which factors influence whether an individual becomes a scout or a recruit, nor how the division of labor between the two forager groups is regulated. It is shown here for honeybees (Apis mellifera), using two different molecular techniques, that there is a genetically based difference in the probability that individuals will scout independently for food. In contrast to earlier suggestions, experimental tests showed that the age of a bee does not seem to influence its probability of becoming a scout or a recruit. Furthermore, scout bees do not search opportunistically for either pollen or nectar but, rather, individuals have preferences that are genetically based. These findings are discussed in the framework of foraging regulation by specialization in honeybees and the adaptive significance of polyandry.

Competition in a Group of Equal Foragers

Using techniques from renewal process theory, we build a stochastic model for gain accumulation in a group of equal competitors foraging in a patchy environment. The model for gain of the individuals is based on the waiting times between subsequent prey encounters by the group. These waiting times depend on the number of foragers in the group. A single parameter of this dependency encompasses a variety of foraging scenarios, from co-operation to scramble. With constant patch size, correlations between gains of any pair of foragers are negative. This dependency is most intense in small groups. Increased variation in patch size makes correlations in gains between group members positive irrespective of the group size. For a solitary forager, variance in gain approaches zero with increasing time in the patch. For an individual member in a group, variance grows monotonically. Thus, depending on the patch departure rule controlling the time to be spent in the patch, solitary foragers may have a smaller variance in gain than members in a group. As solitary foragers also potentially harvest all prey in the patch, it is hard to believe that grouping behavior would evolve solely on the basis of foraging.

GROUP CHOICE: COMPETITION, TRAVEL, AND THE IDEAL FREE DISTRIBUTION

If a group of foragers distributes among resource patches according to the ideal free distribution, the relative number of foragers in each patch should match the relative amount of resource obtained there, unless deviations arise from factors such as incomplete information or interforager interference. In analogy to individual choice, such effects may produce undermatching—group distribution falling short of resource distribution—or overmatching—group distribution overshooting resource distribution. In the present experiments, a flock of about 30 pigeons distributed between two patches with continuous inputs of green peas. Competition was varied by changing the size or extent of the patches. When the patches were areas or troughs, some undermatching occurred. When the patches were small bowls, strong undermatching occurred. When travel was required to switch patches, undermatching decreased slightly. A visual barrier that prevented pigeons from seeing one patch from the other had no effect. Overall rate of food delivery, varied over a wide range, had no effect. It appeared that the mechanism of flock distribution depended on comparisons between patches that were successive rather than simultaneous. Although most pigeons participated in the experiments, and different pigeons participated to different extents, individual pigeons tended to be consistent in the extent of participation from session to session, suggesting the possibility that participation might reflect competitive ability. Examination of the preferences and switching of individual pigeons revealed no consistency within or across individuals. It appeared that the flock's distribution was a truly emergent phenomenon, in the sense that results at the level of the flock in no way paralleled behavior at the level of the individual.

The effect of dominance hierarchy on the use of alternative foraging tactics: a phenotype-limited producing-scrounging game

Group living is thought to be advantageous for animals, though it also creates opportunities for exploitation. Using food discovered by others can be described as a producer-scrounger, frequency-dependent game. In the game, scroungers (parasitic individuals) do better than producers (food finders) when scroungers are rare in the group, but they do worse when scroungers are common. When the individuals' payoffs do not depend on their phenotype (i.e. a symmetric game), this strong negative frequency dependence leads to a mixed stable solution where both alternatives obtain equal payoffs. Here, we address the question of how differences in social status in a dominance hierarchy influence the individuals' decision to play producer or scrounger in small foraging groups. We model explicitly the food intake rate of each individual in a dominance-structured foraging group, then calculate the Nash equilibrium for them. Our model predicts that only strong differences in competitive ability will influence the use of producing or scrounging tactics in small foraging groups; dominants will mainly play scrounger and subordinates will mostly use producer. Since the differences in competitive ability of different-ranking individuals likely depend on the economic defendability of food, our model provides a step towards the integration of social foraging and resource defence theories.

The Ideal Free Distribution with Kleptoparasitism

We present a simple mechanistic model describing kleptoparasitic (food stealing) behaviour among a group of foragers. This behavioural model is used to produce an analytic expression for the food uptake rate (functional response) of individual foragers in the presence of kleptoparasitism. The parameters of this functional response can be interpreted in terms of the underlying behavioural model. We define intensity of interference as the rate at which obtained uptake rate, relative to that achieved without competitors, decreases with increasing forager density. The intensity of interference increases with increasing forager density and with decreasing food density. The functional response is used to find analytic expressions for the ideal free distribution of foragers among a range of habitats differing in food density. The model predicts that the proportion of foragers opting to use the richest patch will always be greater than the proportion of food there. The proportion of foragers using a patch depends not only on the proportion of food on that patch but on the distribution of food between the other patches in the system.

Pygmées d'Afrique centrale. Par STEFAN SEITZ. (Langues et cultures africaines 17. Etudes pygmées IX). Paris: Peeters, 1993. Pp. 367. No price given (ISBN 2-87723-048-1).

This is the translation by L. Bouquiaux and Gloria Lex of Die zentralafrikanischen Wildbeuterkulturen (Studien zur Kulturkunde, 45: Wiesbaden, 1977). It deals successively with older theories about pygmies, the enumeration and classification of different groups of central African foragers, their ecology and economy, their transition from gathering to food production, their confrontation with farmers and their relations to sacred kingship. A critical evaluation of theories of culture change is also provided. This enumeration alone reveals how much the author is beholden to the points of view of Central European ethnology, even though he rejects the German Kulturkreislehre of P. W. Schmidt in which pygmy culture was treated as an, or as the, primordial human culture. This is despite the fact that Seitz stresses culture change, albeit of an orderly sort. But that does not detract from the fact, underlined in the preface to the translation (p. 12) that this is a very carefully documented reference work, an excellent entry into the forest of books about ‘pygmies’.

Ranging and grouping patterns of a western lowland gorilla group at Bai Hokou, Central African Republic

The ranging and grouping patterns of a gorilla group were studied during 27 months from 1990-1992 at the Bai Hokou study site, Central African Republic. The study group ranged far daily (average = 2.3 km/day) and had a large home range (22.9 km2), relative to mountain gorillas, and ranging patterns differed between years. During 1990-1992, the bimale study group foraged less cohesively and had more flexible grouping patterns than mountain gorillas. The study group sometimes split into two distinct foraging subgroups, each led by a silverback, and these subgroups occasionally slept apart (mean = 950 m apart). Lowland gorillas rely on many of the same fruit resources as sympatric chimpanzees, and under certain demographic situations gorillas, like sympatric chimpanzees, may adapt their foraging group size to reduce intragroup feeding competition. However, the fiber content of the lowland gorilla diet likely relaxes constraints on foraging party size and facilitates group cohesion relative to chimpanzees.

Group Foraging Revisited: Information Sharing or Producer-Scrounger Game?

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotes and CommentsGroup Foraging Revisited: Information Sharing or Producer-Scrounger Game?G. Beauchamp and L.-A. GiraldeauG. Beauchamp Search for more articles by this author and L.-A. Giraldeau Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 148, Number 4Oct., 1996 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/285951 Views: 17Total views on this site Citations: 25Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1996 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Johannes Nauta, Pieter Simoens, Yara Khaluf Group size and resource fractality drive multimodal search strategies: A quantitative analysis on group foraging, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 590 (Mar 2022): 126702.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2021.126702Johannes Nauta, Yara Khaluf, Pieter Simoens Resource ephemerality influences effectiveness of altruistic behavior in collective foraging, Swarm Intelligence 15, no.44 (Nov 2021): 427–457.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-021-00205-6Luis Alfaro, Rosalva Cabrera Can the setup of a patch modulate finder’s advantage?, Behavioural Processes 192 (Nov 2021): 104488.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104488Uri Hertz, Vaughan Bell, Nichola Raihani Trusting and learning from others: immediate and long-term effects of learning from observation and advice, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288, no.19611961 (Oct 2021).https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1414Luis Alfaro, Rosalva Cabrera EFFECT OF GROUP SIZE ON PRODUCER-SCROUNGER STRATEGIES OF WISTAR RATS, Behavioural Processes (Nov 2020): 104280.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104280Marie Barou-Dagues, Étienne Richard-Dionne, Frédérique Dubois Do female zebra finches prefer males exhibiting greater plasticity in foraging tactic use?, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 74, no.99 (Aug 2020).https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02886-1Frédérique Dubois, Étienne Richard‐Dionne Consequences of multiple simultaneous opportunities to exploit others’ efforts on free riding, Ecology and Evolution 10, no.1010 (Apr 2020): 4343–4351.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6201Hannah Page, Andrew Sweeney, Anna Pilko, Noa Pinter-Wollman Underlying mechanisms and ecological context of variation in exploratory behavior of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, The Journal of Experimental Biology 221, no.2424 (Nov 2018): jeb188722.https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.188722Jessica A. 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Marcus Rowcliffe, Guy Cowlishaw Information use and resource competition: an integrative framework, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283, no.18251825 (Feb 2016): 20152550.https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2550Mohammad Afshar, Luc-Alain Giraldeau A unified modelling approach for producer–scrounger games in complex ecological conditions, Animal Behaviour 96 (Oct 2014): 167–176.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.07.022Changjun Liu, Yingni Zhai, Lichen Shi, Yixing Gao, Junhu Wei Group area search: A novel nature-inspired optimization algorithm, (Aug 2013): 1352–1357.https://doi.org/10.1109/ICInfA.2013.6720504Sepideh Bazazi, Karin S. Pfennig, Nils Olav Handegard, Iain D. 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Reproductive Sharing in Different Types of Kin Associations

Reproductive Sharing in Different Types of Kin Associations

Foreign countries: The development of ethnoarchaeology in sub-Saharan Africa

Ethnoarchaeological research in sub-Saharan Africa began as a distinct study in the late 1960s and early 1970s and developed rather differently in different areas of the continent. This variability is related to a number of research circumstances in these regions: the presence of an important francophone archaeological tradition in West Africa, palaeoanthropological studies that have taken place in East and southern Africa over the last 60 years, and a concentration upon the study of forager groups in different parts of the continent. Ethnoarchaeology in West Africa, in East and Central Africa, and in southern Africa are examined in turn, with particular attention paid to the influence of research lineages in each region and to changes in methodologies and theoretical perspectives through time.