Exploration in red knots

Abstract

Chapter 1 is still unknown how the relation between the genes, epigenetic factors, maternal effects, and personal experiences affect the development of personality (Cabrera et al., 2021). Feedback between exploration and foraging behaviourForaging is essential for most organisms as it directly influences fitness. Individuals can differ in their methods of detecting prey (hereafter 'foraging tactics') if food items induce differences in the behaviours needed to collect them (e.g., Newsome et al., 2009).By foraging for a certain food type, an individual can improve its foraging efficiency to detect, capture, and process this specific food (Heinrich, 1976). The feedback between foraging tactics, food type, and foraging efficiency can create consistent variation in foraging tactics between members of the same population (Luttbeg and Sih, 2010;. The term individual niche specialisation (particularly in terms of behavioural traits associated with foraging behaviour and diet choice) has been used to describe consistent individual variation in resource use (

Slow-exploring captive red knots were quicker to find food in a social setting than fast explorers

“…Such foraging habitat provides potential for local enhancement [6] as using social foraging information likely increases the chances of finding hidden food and ultimately the foraging success of the individual. A recent study, combining personality assays and high-throughput tracking, revealed that exploratory personality correlates with movement in the wild, and faster-exploring red knots visit more areas than slower explorers [31]. Thereby, faster explorers can find new foraging areas and provide foraging information to their conspecifics.…”