Influence of age, kinship, and large-scale habitat quality on local foraging choices of Siberian jays

Magdalena Nystrand

Behavioral Ecology, 2006, vol. 17, issue 3, 503-509

Abstract: Animals face a constant conflict between gaining benefits and the risks associated with achieving them. In particular, the trade-off between gaining food and avoiding predation has been the subject of much attention. Here, I investigate the preferences for foraging sites in the group-living Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus), focusing on how energy intake is traded against proximity to cover. The main predator of this species relies primarily on visual cues to locate its prey, and thus, foraging in open habitat should be associated with higher exposure to a predator. Jays generally chose to feed in cover, a pattern that became stronger toward late winter. In particular, the strength of this preference varied with age, relatedness to other group members, and large-scale habitat quality. Adult territory holders and their retained offspring demonstrated similar preference for cover over seasons, a pattern not observed in nonrelated immigrants that showed no response to either forest structure or season. These results suggest that the benefits of parental nepotism enables retained offspring to take less risk, in regards to predators while foraging compared to similar-aged immigrants whose foraging options are constrained by social interference. Also, this study indicates that large-scale forest structure influences small-scale individual behavioral decisions. Copyright 2006.

Keywords: feeding site; predation; relatedness; Siberian jay; social groups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arj055 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:17:y:2006:i:3:p:503-509

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().