Foraging activity and food selection in Asiatic black bear orphaned cubs in absence of social learning from a mother

Pokrovskaya, Liya

doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2015.02.007

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Studies of both captive and free-ranging animals have found learning to be correlated with opportunism, curiosity, behavioural plasticity, large brain size, and developed memory [15, 16, 17, 18]. Bears (Ursidae) possess each of these traits along with high maternal investment in offspring, making them predisposed to social learning [19, 20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature vs. Nurture: Evidence for Social Learning of Conflict Behaviour in Grizzly Bears

et al. 2016

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The propensity for a grizzly bear to develop conflict behaviours might be a result of social learning between mothers and cubs, genetic inheritance, or both learning and inheritance. Using non-invasive genetic sampling, we collected grizzly bear hair samples during 2011–2014 across southwestern Alberta, Canada. We targeted private agricultural lands for hair samples at grizzly bear incident sites, defining an incident as an occurrence in which the grizzly bear caused property damage, obtained anthropogenic food, or killed or attempted to kill livestock or pets. We genotyped 213 unique grizzly bears (118 M, 95 F) at 24 microsatellite loci, plus the amelogenin marker for sex. We used the program COLONY to assign parentage. We evaluated 76 mother-offspring relationships and 119 father-offspring relationships. We compared the frequency of problem and non-problem offspring from problem and non-problem parents, excluding dependent offspring from our analysis. Our results support the social learning hypothesis, but not the genetic inheritance hypothesis. Offspring of problem mothers are more likely to be involved in conflict behaviours, while offspring from non-problem mothers are not likely to be involved in incidents or human-bear conflicts themselves (Barnard’s test, p = 0.05, 62.5% of offspring from problem mothers were problem bears). There was no evidence that offspring are more likely to be involved in conflict behaviour if their fathers had been problem bears (Barnard’s test, p = 0.92, 29.6% of offspring from problem fathers were problem bears). For the mother-offspring relationships evaluated, 30.3% of offspring were identified as problem bears independent of their mother’s conflict status. Similarly, 28.6% of offspring were identified as problem bears independent of their father’s conflict status. Proactive mitigation to prevent female bears from becoming problem individuals likely will help prevent the perpetuation of conflicts through social learning.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature vs. Nurture: Evidence for Social Learning of Conflict Behaviour in Grizzly Bears

et al. 2016

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“…It is known that socially enhanced food preferences wane relatively quickly if animals are exposed to high‐quality alternative foods (Galef & Whiskin, 2001). Additionally, Pokrovskaya (2015) suggested that the food preferences of bears are developed by trial and error. Marine animals are certainly a high‐quality food for brown bears; however, males that were born in the middle or base areas and did not learn to feed on marine animals while with their mothers may not easily acquire foraging experience for this prey item.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

et al. 2022

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Exploring the process of diet selection will contribute to improvement in our understanding of animal foraging strategies. The overwhelming majority of ecological research on animal learning and foraging concentrates on how social learning influences the feeding styles of animals living in groups. In solitary animals that live long after independence from their mothers, foraging experience after independence is expected to have a significant influence on diet selection, but few studies have addressed this point. We used brown bears (Ursus arctos), which spend 1–2 years with their mothers before foraging alone, as a model species and investigated how their diet changed later in life. We estimated the diets of bears at the individual level by using stable isotope analysis of guard hairs and examined the factors that drove dietary variation. We also quantified the extent to which the diets of bears shifted by comparing the diets of bears at the time of capture with the average diet in their natal habitat. Our results indicated that females retained the average diet of their natal habitat, whereas the diets of males significantly changed more than 6 years after becoming independent from their mothers, when they reached physical maturity. Males were dependent on energy‐rich marine animals at older ages regardless of their natal habitats, which we attribute to several factors, including habitat exploration, acquisition of foraging experience, and social dominance. Our results provide the first evidence, suggesting that foraging experience after independence influences diet selection later in life in solitary large mammals.

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Season, prey availability, sex, and age explain prey size selection in a large solitary carnivore

Bates‐Mundell,

Williams,

Sager‐Fradkin

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Prey selection is a fundamental aspect of ecology that drives evolution and community structure, yet the impact of intraspecific variation on the selection for prey size remains largely unaccounted for in ecological theory. Here, we explored puma (Puma concolor) prey selection across six study sites in North and South America. Our results highlighted the strong influence of season and prey availability on puma prey selection, and the smaller influence of puma age. Pumas in all sites selected smaller prey in warmer seasons following the ungulate birth pulse. Our top models included interaction terms between sex and age, suggesting that males more than females select larger prey as they age, which may reflect experiential learning. When accounting for variable sampling across pumas in our six sites, male and female pumas killed prey of equivalent size, even though males are larger than females, challenging assumptions about this species. Nevertheless, pumas in different study sites selected prey of different sizes, emphasizing that the optimal prey size for pumas is likely context‐dependent and affected by prey availability. The mean prey weight across all sites averaged 1.18 times mean puma weight, which was less than predicted as the optimal prey size by energetics and ecological theory (optimal prey = 1.45 puma weight). Our results help refine our understanding of optimal prey for pumas and other solitary carnivores, as well as corroborate recent research emphasizing that carnivore prey selection is impacted not just by energetics but by the effects of diverse ecology.

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Foraging activity and food selection in Asiatic black bear orphaned cubs in absence of social learning from a mother

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

Nature vs. Nurture: Evidence for Social Learning of Conflict Behaviour in Grizzly Bears

Nature vs. Nurture: Evidence for Social Learning of Conflict Behaviour in Grizzly Bears

Diet selection and asocial learning: Natal habitat influence on lifelong foraging strategies in solitary large mammals

Season, prey availability, sex, and age explain prey size selection in a large solitary carnivore

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