Rodent Foraging Research Articles

The hotter the better: high mean annual temperature, not seed predation, hastens the decline of invasive Bromus tectorum

AbstractBromus tectorum invasion degrades biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the Great Basin Desert. To explain, predict, and manage B. tectorum invasion, we must understand the biotic and abiotic factors that influence its establishment and persistence. We explored interactions between two key constraints for invaders in general and B. tectorum in particular: post-dispersal seed predation and climate, including mean annual temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and aridity. At six study sites in undisturbed, climax Artemisia tridentata communities across northern Nevada and Utah, we performed one-time additions of 100 B. tectorum seeds to microsites outfitted with either a dummy (“open”) cage that exposed seeds to rodent foraging, or a functional (“closed”) cage that protected them from rodent foraging. Living Bromus tectorum plants within experimental cages were censused one and 5 years after seed additions. At both 1- and 5-years censuses, and regardless of climate, B. tectorum densities were similar in open and closed microsites, suggesting that rodent foraging did not affect B. tectorum establishment or persistence. Compared to 1-year censuses, B. tectorum counts declined by 47% across all sites after 5 years, but declines were sharpest at sites with the highest mean annual temperatures. Taken together, our findings suggest that undisturbed, climax A. tridentata communities can resist B. tectorum expansion, and this resistance increases with mean annual temperature, not rodent foraging. We suggest that controlling nascent populations of B. tectorum may be particularly urgent in intact climax A. tridentata communities in relatively cool climates, where community-level resistance against B. tectorum persistence is lowest.

Do Stone Martens Modify Small Rodent Foraging Activity Rates After Wildfires?

Do Stone Martens Modify Small Rodent Foraging Activity Rates After Wildfires?

Can predators influence small rodent foraging activity rates immediately after wildfires?

Background Habitat complexity, predation risk, and intraspecific competition shape rodent communities and impact foraging. Wildfires remove vegetation shelter, which increases the predation risk perception and leads to changes in trophic resources availability. Consequently, prey adjust their foraging activity levels to minimise the likelihood of encounters with predators. Rodents select safe habitats and can detect predators’ scents, which allows them to reduce the predation risk when foraging. Aims To evaluate the effects of carnivore occurrence and habitat structure on rodent foraging activity rates immediately after fires using mixed models and structural equation modelling. Methods This study used 900-m linear transects to analyse environmental variables, acorn removal by rodents, and carnivore activity in three recently burnt areas. Results In areas with higher stone marten abundances, rodents removed more acorns. However, acorn removal was also higher in structurally complex habitats with greater rodent abundance. Conclusions Rodents’ foraging activity is driven by increased interspecific competition and the predation risk perception due to the simplicity of the burnt habitat. Additionally, stone martens and rodents share the same preferences for habitat complexity after fires. Implications Habitat complexity increases seed holding by rodents, which positively contributes to fire recovery and attracts predators, thereby increasing species diversity.

Invasive rodent responses to experimental and natural hurricanes with implications for global climate change

AbstractHurricanes cause dramatic changes to forests by opening the canopy and depositing debris onto the forest floor. How invasive rodent populations respond to hurricanes is not well understood, but shifts in rodent abundance and foraging may result from scarce fruit and seed resources that follow hurricanes. We conducted studies in a wet tropical forest in Puerto Rico to better understand how experimental (canopy trimming experiment) and natural (Hurricane Maria) hurricane effects alter populations of invasive rodents (Rattus rattus [rats] and Mus musculus [mice]) and their foraging behaviors. To monitor rodent populations, we used tracking tunnels (inked and baited cards inside tunnels enabling identification of animal visitors' footprints) within experimental hurricane plots (arborist trimmed in 2014) and reference plots (closed canopy forest). To assess shifts in rodent foraging, we compared seed removal of two tree species (Guarea guidonia and Prestoea acuminata) between vertebrate‐excluded and free‐access treatments in the same experimental and reference plots, and did so 3 months before and 9 months after Hurricane Maria (2017). Trail cameras were used to identify animals responsible for seed removal. Rat incidences generated from tracking tunnel surveys indicated that rat populations were not significantly affected by experimental or natural hurricanes. Before Hurricane Maria there were no mice in the forest interior, yet mice were present in forest plots closest to the road after the hurricane, and their forest invasion coincided with increased grass cover resulting from open forest canopy. Seed removal of Guarea and Prestoea across all plots was rat dominated (75%–100% rat‐removed) and was significantly less after than before Hurricane Maria. However, following Hurricane Maria, the experimental hurricane treatment plots of 2014 had 3.6 times greater seed removal by invasive rats than did the reference plots, which may have resulted from rats selecting post‐hurricane forest patches with greater understory cover for foraging. Invasive rodents are resistant to hurricane disturbance in this forest. Predictions of increased hurricane frequency from expected climate change should result in forest with more frequent periods of grassy understories and mouse presence, as well as with heightened rat foraging for fruit and seed in preexisting areas of disturbance.

Invasive grass indirectly alters seasonal patterns in seed predation.

Invasive species threaten ecosystems globally, but their impacts can be cryptic when they occur indirectly. Invader phenology can also differ from that of native species, potentially causing seasonality in invader impacts. Yet, it is unclear if invader phenology can drive seasonal patterns in indirect effects. We used a field experiment to test if an invasive grass (Imperata cylindrica) caused seasonal indirect effects by altering rodent foraging and seed predation patterns through time. Using seeds from native longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), we found seed predation was 25% greater, on average, in invaded than control plots, but this effect varied by season. Seed predation was 24-157% greater in invaded plots during spring and autumn months, but invasion had no effect on seed predation in other months. One of the largest effects occurred in October when longleaf pine seeds are dispersed, suggesting potential effects on tree regeneration. Thus, seasonal patterns in indirect effects from invaders may cause underappreciated impacts on ecological communities.

Seed size affects rodent-seed interaction consistently across plant species but not within species: evidence from a seed tracking experiment of 41 tree species.

Scatter-hoarding rodents play a crucial role in seed survival and seed dispersal. As one of the most important seed traits, seed size and its effect on rodent-seed interaction attract lots of attention. Current studies usually target one or a few species and show inconsistent patterns; however, few experiments include a large number of species although many plant species usually coexist in natural forest and overlap in fruiting time. Here, we tracked the dispersal and predation of 26100 seeds belonging to 41 tree species in a subtropical forest for 2 years. Most species showed no relationships between seed size and rodent foraging preference, while the remaining species displayed diverse of patterns: monotonic decrease and increase trends, and hump-shaped and U-shaped patterns, indicating that a one-off study with a few species might give misleading information. However, the seed size effect across species was consistent in both years, indicating that including a large number of species that hold a sufficient range of seed size may avoid the aforementioned bias. Interestingly, seed size effect differed among rodent foraging processes: a negative effect on seed harvest, a hump-shaped effect on seed removal and removal distance, while a positive effect on overwinter survival of cached seeds, indicating that rodents may make trade-offs between large and small seeds both among foraging processes and within a single process, thus lead to a parabolic relationship between seed size and seed dispersal success, that is medium-sized seeds were more likely to be removed and cached, and transported with a further distance.

Native seed dispersal by rodents is negatively influenced by an invasive shrub

Refuge–mediated apparent competition is the mechanism by which invasive plants increase pressure on native plants by providing refuge for generalist consumers. In the UK, the invasive Rhododendron ponticum does not provide food for generalist seed consumers like rodents, but evergreen canopy provides refuge from rodent predators, and predation and pilferage risk are key factors affecting rodent foraging and caching behaviour. Here we used a seed removal/ seed fate experiment to understand how invasion by an evergreen shrub can alter seed dispersal, seed fate and early recruitment of native trees. We used seeds of four species, small and wind–dispersed (sycamore maple Acer pseudoplatanus and European ash Fraxinus excelsior) and large and animal–dispersed (pedunculate oak Quercus robur and common hazel Corylus avellana), and monitored seed predation and caching in open woodland, edge habitats, and under Rhododendron. In the open woodland, wind–dispersed seeds had a higher probability of being eaten in situ than cached seeds, while the opposite occurred with animal–dispersed seeds. The latter were removed from the open woodland and edge habitats and cached under Rhododendron. This pattern was expected if predation risk was the main factor influencing the decision to eat or to cach a seed. Enhanced dispersal towards Rhododendron cover did not increase the prospects for seed survival, as density of hazel and oak saplings under its cover was close to zero as compared to open woodland, possibly due to increased cache pilferage or low seedling survival under dense shade, or both. Enhanced seed predation of ash and sycamore seeds close to Rhododendron cover also decreased recruitment of these trees. Rhododendron patches biased rodent foraging behaviour towards the negative (net predation) side of the conditional rodent / tree interaction. This effect will potentially impact native woodland regeneration and further facilitate Rhododendron spread due to refuge–mediated apparent competition.

Rodent population and community responses to experimental, large scale, long-term coarse woody debris manipulations

Coarse woody debris (CWD) is a structural feature in forests throughout the United States that provides unique cover, runways, and microclimate for various wildlife species. While use and selection of CWD for rodent foraging, travel, and nesting, which can impact an individual’s fitness, has been demonstrated across numerous studies, the role of CWD presence and abundance in rodent population and community dynamics varies across studies. To better understand rodent and CWD relationships, we studied rodent populations across two periods of CWD manipulation in randomly assigned experimental treatments in South Carolina (Period I: March 1996–November 2000; removal of all snags and fallen logs, removal of fallen logs only, and Control, and Period II: January 2002–September 2006; downed woody debris addition, snag addition, and Control). Overall, we found minimal effects of experimental treatments on the rodent community composition and structure, and community level variation was mainly explained by cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus) and southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) captures. There were no experimental treatment effects on captures of cotton mice and southern flying squirrels, but we observed variation across seasons and years. Our study shows that over the long-term, rodent population and community dynamics are not affected by experimental manipulations of CWD in our study area.

Vicarious Trial-and-Error Is Enhanced During Deliberation in Human Virtual Navigation in a Translational Foraging Task.

Foraging tasks provide valuable insights into decision-making as animals decide how to allocate limited resources (such as time). In rodents, vicarious trial-and-error (back and forth movements), or VTE, is an important behavioral measure of deliberation which is enhanced early in learning and when animals are presented with difficult decisions. Using new translational versions of a rodent foraging task (the “Movie Row” and “Candy Row”), humans navigated a virtual maze presented on standard computers to obtain rewards (either short videos or candy) offered after a variable delay. Decision latencies were longer when participants were presented with difficult offers, overrode their preferences, and when they accepted an offer after rejecting a previous offer. In these situations, humans showed VTE-like behavior, where they were more likely to pause and/or reorient one or more times before making a decision. Behavior on these tasks replicated previous results from the rodent foraging task (“Restaurant Row”) and a human version lacking a navigation component (“Web-Surf”) and revealed some species differences. Compared to survey measures of delay-discounting, willingness to wait for rewards in the foraging task was not related to willingness to wait for hypothetical rewards. And, smoking status (use of cigarettes or e-cigarettes) was associated with stronger discounting of hypothetical future rewards, but was not well-related to performance on the foraging tasks. In contrast, individuals with overweight or obese BMI (≥25) did not show stronger delay-discounting, but individuals with BMI ≥ 25, and especially females, showed reduced sensitivity to sunk-costs (where their decisions were less sensitive to irrecoverable investments of effort) and less deliberation when presented with difficult offers. These data indicate that VTE is a behavioral index of deliberation in humans, and further support the Movie and Candy Row as translational tools to study decision-making in humans with the potential to provide novel insights about decision-making that are relevant to public health.

Caching in or Falling Back at the Sevilleta: The Effects of Body Size and Seasonal Uncertainty on Desert Rodent Foraging.

Foraging in uncertain environments requires balancing the risks associated with finding alternative resources against potential gains. In arid-land environments characterized by extreme variation in the amount and seasonal timing of primary production, consumers must weigh the risks associated with foraging for preferred seeds that can be cached against fallback foods of low nutritional quality (e.g., leaves) that must be consumed immediately. Here, we explore the influence of resource scarcity, body size, and seasonal uncertainty on the expected foraging behaviors of caching rodents in the northern Chihuahaun Desert by integrating these elements with a stochastic dynamic program to determine fitness-maximizing foraging strategies. We demonstrate that resource-limited environments promote dependence on fallback foods, reducing the likelihood of starvation while increasing future risk exposure. Our results point to a qualitative difference in the use of fallback foods and the fitness benefits of caching at the threshold body size of 50 g. Above this 50-g body size threshold, we observe large fitness gains associated with the maintenance of even a modest-sized cache, whereas similar gains for smaller consumers require maintenance of unrealistically large caches. This suggests that larger-bodied consumers that cache may be less sensitive to the future uncertainties in monsoonal onset predicted by global climate scenarios, whereas smaller consumers, regardless of caching behavior, may be at greater risk.

Does post-fire salvage logging affect foraging activity by rodents?

Following wildfires, salvage logging is applied for silvicultural, safety or even aesthetic reasons. Such operations impact on biological legacies, impair natural vegetation recovery and may affect several animal species that depend on vegetation structure and specific plant resources. Rodents, such as wood and Algerian mice, use vegetation cover as protection against predators and are important prey, moderately effective seed dispersers and efficient seed predators. Different post-fire management strategies may either promote rodent abundance, enhancing their key biological roles, or result in low rodent abundance, creating a low seed predation window of opportunity when assisted regeneration of burnt forests is required. In order to evaluate the effects of post-fire salvage logging on plant-animal interactions, we compared plant regeneration, the availability of trophic resources (seeds and fleshy fruits), rodent foraging activity and rodent relative abundance between unlogged and logged burnt pine forests in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula at different distances (up to 700 m) from the burnt area perimeter. The results show that vegetation recovered more slowly in salvage logged than in unlogged areas. Foraging activity of rodents increased both with the volume of woody debris, mainly derived from salvage logging, and with increasing foliage cover. Management strategies aimed at promoting the presence of rodents and associated biodiversity can, however, hamper assisted regeneration by seed sowing.

Microhabitat conditions and landscape pattern explain nocturnal rodent activity, but not seed removal, in burned and unburned lodgepole pine forests

Disturbances create spatial variation in environments that may influence animal foraging. Granivory by rodents can influence seed supply and thus plant establishment. However, effects of disturbance patterns on rodent seed removal in western North American conifer forests are generally unknown. We conducted a study in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forests of Greater Yellowstone (Wyoming, USA) to answer: (1) How do seed removal and rodent activity vary between recently burned and adjacent unburned forests and with distance from fire perimeter? (2) Which microhabitat conditions explain variability in seed removal and rodent activity? One or two years after wildfires, we established transects (n = 23) with four stations each: at 10 and 40 m from the fire perimeter in both burned and unburned forest. At stations, we deployed trays with lodgepole pine seeds and cameras pointed at trays for 28 days and quantified habitat structure and seed abundance. Seed removal, which averaged 85%, and diurnal rodent activity did not differ between burned and unburned forests or with distance from the fire perimeter; however, nocturnal rodent activity was lower in burned forests. Seed removal and diurnal rodent activity were not associated with any microhabitat conditions we measured. However, nocturnal rodent activity was associated with microhabitat in both burned and unburned forests. High seed removal rates suggested that rodent foraging was not reduced by high-severity wildfire. If observed seed removal represents natural conditions, post-dispersal seed predation could influence post-fire recruitment of a widespread foundation tree species.

Domestic cats and dogs create a landscape of fear for pest rodents around rural homesteads.

Using domestic predators such as cats to control rodent pest problems around farms and homesteads is common across the world. However, practical scientific evidence on the impact of such biological control in agricultural settings is often lacking. We tested whether the presence of domestic cats and/or dogs in rural homesteads would affect the foraging behaviour of pest rodents. We estimated giving up densities (GUDs) from established feeding patches and estimated relative rodent activity using tracking tiles at 40 homesteads across four agricultural communities. We found that the presence of cats and dogs at the same homestead significantly reduced activity and increased GUDs (i.e. increased perception of foraging cost) of pest rodent species. However, if only cats or dogs alone were present at the homestead there was no observed difference in rodent foraging activity in comparison to homesteads with no cats or dogs. Our results suggest that pest rodent activity can be discouraged through the presence of domestic predators. When different types of predator are present together they likely create a heightened landscape of fear for foraging rodents.

Frequency-dependent hoarding bySciurus carolinensisoccurs with seeds of similar perceived value

Seed predation and rodent foraging behaviors depend on frequency of available seeds and seed traits. However, the interaction of frequency of seed availability and seed traits adds a new level of complexity to granivore–seed dynamics. We conducted experiments with eastern gray squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) designed to elucidate the frequency × trait interaction. We hypothesized that frequency-dependent caching should occur only among pairs of seeds that are relatively similar in attributes that affect their perceived value as a storable food item. We also tested whether caching decisions were dependent on seeds already cached, a variable rarely considered in seed dispersal studies. Frequency-dependent seed caching occurred when seeds of relatively similar value ( Juglans regia and Castanea mollissima ) were paired. For this seed pair, caching decisions by S. carolinensis were dependent on seeds already cached such that squirrels tended to cache seeds that were either rare in the environment or in the cache. When seeds of very different caching values were paired ( Juglans nigra and Corylus americana ), a strong preference for the high-value seed was observed, but no frequency-dependent selection. We conclude that in pairings of seeds of differential caching value, the highly preferred seed is cached regardless of frequency of availability. In contrast, when seeds of similar value are paired, rarer (more common) seeds are cached at a higher (lower) rate than expected, and this behavior potentially stabilizes seed survival across available seed types leading to increased tree diversity. Our results indicate that caching of seeds by squirrels, and by implication recruitment of seedlings into plant populations, is likely driven by complex interactions between the relative frequency of seeds and their traits. We expect similar patterns to occur in any system in which foragers select among resource types that vary in perceived value.

The effect of seed size on seed fate in a subtropical forest, southwest of China

Abstract: Scatter-hoarding rodents acting both as seed predators and dispersers usually play an important role in seed dispersal of many plant species. Seed size is thought to essentially affect rodent scatter-hoarding processes. However, studies to date have frequently shown many controversial results regarding the effect of seed size on rodent foraging. In this study, we explored how seed size affects scatter-hoarding rodent foraging preferences in order to identify the possible reasons underlying the conflicting results reported in the scientific literature. We surveyed rodent seed predation and dispersal of five common tree species in a natural subtropical forest located in southwestern China along two seasons which were different in both seed abundances and rodent communities. Our results showed that a similar effect of seed size on rodent scatter-hoarding behavior existed in both seasons, although the seeds in spring were harvested more quickly than in autumn. Larger seeds of the small-seeded species (Castanopsis wattii, Lithocarpus hancei, Machilns yunnanensis and Lithocarpus pachyphyllus) were harvested, removed, and finally cached by the rodents more frequently. For the largest-seeded species (Lithocarpus xylocarpus), seeds with smaller size were preferred during the rodent scatter-hoarding processes. Our findings support the hypothesis that scatter-hoarding rodents preferably feed on large seeds at early stage of seed dispersal, but only up to a certain threshold of seed size.

A game of cat-and-mouse: microhabitat influences rodent foraging in recently burnt but not long unburnt shrublands

We investigated the influence of vegetation structure and fire history on the foraging behavior of small rodents (Notomys mitchellii, Pseudomys hermannsburgensis, and Mus musculus) by conducting giving-up density (GUD) experiments in recently burnt (9–13 years since last fire) and long unburnt shrublands (> 40 years), and open and sheltered microhabitats, in a semiarid region of Western Australia. We predicted that rodents would spend less time foraging in recently burnt shrublands and open microhabitat and that the influence of microhabitat would be weaker in long unburnt compared to more recently burnt vegetation. Our findings show that fire history and microhabitat structure influence the foraging behavior of the study species and that the influence of microhabitat varies between fire histories. GUDs were higher in long unburnt vegetation and in open microhabitats. There was a microhabitat effect in recently burnt vegetation, but not in long unburnt. Rodents foraged more in sheltered microhabitats probably because predator encounters are less likely to occur there and it provides them with greater refuge from predation. The presence of a microhabitat effect in recently burnt, but not long unburnt vegetation suggests that understory vegetation density is more important in mediating predation risk than canopy density. Future studies of small mammal responses to land management actions should include behavioral, as well as population-level responses to differing fire regimes.

Foraging activity of commensal Mus musculus in semi-captivity conditions. Effect of predator odours, previous experience and moonlight.

Mus musculus is a pest in urban and rural habitats where it consumes and contaminates food and may transmit diseases to human and domestic animals. Its control by anticoagulants is partially effective because of aversive behaviours and resistance. In this context, we wanted to assess the potential of the use of predator odours as repellents in experimental feeding trials using urine and faeces of domestic cats and faeces of geoffroyi cat, a wild small felid that is one of the main rodent predators in the study area. We also assessed the effect of previous experience and moonlight on foraging activity. We did not find an aversive response to cat odours in Mus musculus individuals. There was a trend to consume food in the same feeding stations over time, and the visit rate was lower in periods with high moonlight than in periods with low moonlight. Predator odours did not seem to be useful as rodent repellents, but maintaining illumination may lower rodent foraging activity. As rodents maintain their feeding sites over time, toxic baits may be more efficiently placed at sites previously known to be used by rodents.

Teasing apart the effects of seed size and energy content on rodent scatter-hoarding behavior.

Scatter-hoarding rodents are known to play a crucial role in the seed dispersal of many plant species. Numerous studies have indicated that both seed size and the energy content of seeds can affect rodent foraging behavior. However, seed size is usually associated with energy content per seed, making it difficult to isolate how seed size and energy affect rodent foraging preferences. This study used 99 treatments of artificial seeds (11 seed sizes×9 levels of energy content) to tease apart the effect of seed size and energy content on rodent seed-caching behavior. Both seed traits showed significant effects, but their details depended on the stage of the rodent foraging process. Seeds with higher energy content were harvested more rapidly while seed size only had a modest effect on harvest rate. However, after harvesting, seed size showed a much stronger effect on rodent foraging behavior. Rodents’ choice of which seeds to remove and cache, as well as seed dispersal distance, seemed to reflect an optimal seed size. Our findings could be adapted in future studies to gain a better understanding of scatter-hoarding rodent foraging behavior, and the co-evolutionary dynamics between plant seed production and seed dispersers.

Post‐dispersal seed depletion by rodents in marginal populations of yew (Taxus baccata): consequences at geographical and local scales

AbstractPost‐dispersal seed predation is a crucial phenomenon for plant recruitment, and its incidence can be hypothesized to increase in ecologically and geographically marginal populations of threatened species, such as yew (Taxus baccata). Here we examine the among‐ and within‐population patterns of seed consumption by rodents and evaluate to what extent they are linked to marginality in Mediterranean low‐density yew stands. Among populations we tested: (i) whether the rates of seed predation found in our marginal sites were consistently higher than in populations from core regions; (ii) within populations we evaluated whether rodents preferred microhabitats with greater seed availability (beneath female yew trees) or with lower predation risk (shrubs) in two seeding seasons (fall–winter 2005 and 2006). Predation rates were extremely high (92.5%) and they were well above values reported for core populations (65.4%), to the extent that rodents almost completely depleted the experimental seeds in all populations and years. Our expectation of lower predation rates with decreasing vegetation cover was also confirmed for all years and populations, suggesting that rodent foraging was risk‐sensitive. This microhabitat effect outweighed the effect of seed availability under female yew trees, implying also that rodents selectively consumed the most valuable seeds in terms of their recruitment prospects. Overall, our results suggest that the mechanisms underlying seed depletion and its demographic consequences are linked to the effects of reduced yew performance in ecologically marginal habitats.

Temperature and Cloud Cover, but Not Predator Urine, Affect Winter Foraging of Mice

AbstractAlthough homeotherms likely experience costs of both predation risk and thermoregulation while foraging, it is unclear how foragers contend with these costs. We used foraging trays placed in sheltered microsites to determine whether temperature, a direct cue of predator presence (predator urine) and an indirect cue of predation risk (cloudy nights) affect foraging of white‐footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus, in winter. Mice were presented with urine from bobcats, Lynx rufus, red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, and coyotes, Canis latrans, an herbivore (whitetailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus), and a water control. To measure rodent foraging, we used seeds of millet mixed with sand to quantify giving‐up densities (the number of seeds left in each foraging tray). Giving‐up density was not affected by predator urine. Rather, rodent foraging was affected by an interaction of temperature and weather. On overcast nights, when predation risk was likely lower, mice foraged more when soil temperature was higher, presumably reducing thermoregulatory costs. On clear nights, foraging was low regardless of soil temperature, presumably because foraging was more risky. These results suggest that mice consider thermoregulatory costs and predation risk when making foraging decisions, and that the indirect cue afforded by weather, rather than the direct cue of predator urine, is among the cues used to make foraging decisions. Moreover, these results suggest that sensitivity to a particular cue is likely to be context‐dependent.