First explorations: ontogeny of central place foraging directions in two tropical seabirds

Author:

Collet Julien12ORCID,Prudor Aurélien1,Corbeau Alexandre1,Mendez Loriane13,Weimerskirch Henri1

Affiliation:

1. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 CNRS—Université de la Rochelle, France

2. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1, UK

3. CIESM—Mediterranean Science Commission, Monaco

Abstract

Abstract A widespread hypothesis for the ontogeny of behavior and decision-making is the early-exploration-later-canalization hypothesis. It postulates that juveniles are more exploratory and adults more consistent in their behavior. In addition, it is often assumed that naïve juveniles could overcome the costs of individual experience building by copying more the decisions of others than adults (early-conformism-later-self-defining hypothesis). Here, we compare the central place foraging movements of adults and postfledging juveniles in their first flights around the colony before dispersal and migration in two sympatric species of tropical seabirds: red-footed boobies and great frigatebirds. Using GPS records of individual movements, we analyzed the foraging directions of seabirds from the colony across successive trips. Juveniles of both species showed significant within-individual consistency in foraging direction but at lower levels than adults. Juveniles leaving the colony within the same time window showed significant but low between-individual resemblance in foraging direction at levels similar to adults. In both species, homing efficiency was lower in juveniles than in adults. Juvenile foraging directions were initially influenced by wind conditions, particularly in low wing loading frigatebirds. Wind conditions progressively lost influence on juvenile foraging directions during their first weeks of flights. In contrast, within-individual consistency, between-individual resemblance, and homing efficiency did not show signs of progression in juveniles. Our results support the early-exploration-later-canalization hypothesis but not the early-conformism-later-self-defining hypothesis. Relaxed constraints on self-feeding efficiency could favor high variability in postfledging tropical seabirds. Our simple approach could be applied to further test these hypotheses by comparing strategies across a wide range of central place foragers.

Funder

European Research Council

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement

Agence des Aires Marines Protégées

Ministere de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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