Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology

Dall, Sasha R. X.; Giraldeau, Luc‐Alain; Olsson, Ola; McNamara, John M.; Stephens, David W.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.01.010

Cited by 1,179 publications

(1,132 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The behavioral response examined in our study was birds’ attraction to heterospecific mobbing calls to within 15 m of the playback center, under the context that we simulated of a perched predator being mobbed. On the part of the prey species, such attraction confers the benefit of increased information about the predator (e.g., its status, area of use; Dall et al., 2005; Seppänen et al., 2007), but typically does not involve the high risk and intense antipredator behaviors prey face most of the time with regard to ambush predators and surprise attacks, because the predator is already well located and unlikely to attack (Altmann, 1956). Therefore, the aspect of prey vulnerability most directly relevant to our study should concern the identity of predators the prey are vulnerable to, and therefore most likely to mob, rather than the modes of predator–prey interactions such as predator detection and escape, to which traits such as foraging technique and predator detection/escape strategy would have been more relevant (Lima, 1993; Sridhar et al., 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional traits determine heterospecific use of risk‐related social information in forest birds of tropical South‐East Asia

Hua

Yong

Janra

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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In birds and mammals, mobbing calls constitute an important form of social information that can attract numerous sympatric species to localized mobbing aggregations. While such a response is thought to reduce the future predation risk for responding species, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence to support this hypothesis. One way to test the link between predation risk reduction and mobbing attraction involves testing the relationship between species’ attraction to mobbing calls and the functional traits that define their vulnerability to predation risk. Two important traits known to influence prey vulnerability include relative prey‐to‐predator body size ratio and the overlap in space use between predator and prey; in combination, these measures strongly influence prey accessibility, and therefore their vulnerability, to predators. Here, we combine community surveys with behavioral experiments of a diverse bird assemblage in the lowland rainforest of Sumatra to test whether the functional traits of body mass (representing body size) and foraging height (representing space use) can predict species’ attraction to heterospecific mobbing calls. At four forest sites along a gradient of forest degradation, we characterized the resident bird communities using point count and mist‐netting surveys, and determined the species groups attracted to standardized playbacks of mobbing calls produced by five resident bird species of roughly similar body size and foraging height. We found that (1) a large, diverse subcommunity of bird species was attracted to the mobbing calls and (2) responding species (especially the most vigorous respondents) tended to be (a) small (b) mid‐storey foragers (c) with similar trait values as the species producing the mobbing calls. Our findings from the relatively lesser known bird assemblages of tropical Asia add to the growing evidence for the ubiquity of heterospecific information networks in animal communities, and provide empirical support for the long‐standing hypothesis that predation risk reduction is a major benefit of mobbing information networks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional traits determine heterospecific use of risk‐related social information in forest birds of tropical South‐East Asia

Hua

Yong

Janra

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Supporting this, Monteiro's storm-petrel is a burrow-or cavity-nesting bird, so that information on pair BS is unlikely to be public. Under these conditions, distant environmental quality might be better reflected by personal information [7], such as personal foraging effort [41], than by social public information-unless such pelagic birds also have access to public information on collective foraging effort at sea. However, whether these storm-petrels forage in a restricted common marine area is still unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nest fidelity is driven by multi-scale information in a long-lived seabird

et al. 2014

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Although the reproductive success of most organisms depends on factors acting at several spatial scales, little is known about how organisms are able to synthesize multi-scale information to optimize reproduction. Using longitudinal data from a long-lived seabird, Monteiro's storm-petrel, we show that average breeding success is strongly related to oceanic conditions at the population level, and we postulate that (i) individuals use proximal information (their own reproduction outcome in year t) to assess the qualities of their mate and nest and to decide to retain them or not in year t þ 1; (ii) the intensity of these responses depends on the quality of the oceanic environment in year t, which affects the predictability of reproduction outcome in year t þ 1. Our results confirm that mate and nest fidelities are higher following successful reproduction and that the relationship between the success of a given pair and subsequent nest fidelity is stronger in years with unfavourable oceanic conditions, suggesting that individuals rely on distant information to modulate their use of proximal information and adjust their breeding strategy.

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“…They select habitats by using a combination of direct resource cues, such as the quality and quantity of safe nest sites or food resources, and indirect social cues, such as the presence or breeding performance of conspecifics (Danchin et al 2004;Dall et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social cues are preferred over resource cues for breeding-site selection in Barn Swallows

Ringhofer

Hasegawa

2014

J Ornithol

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To maximize fitness, animals choose habitats by using a combination of direct resource cues, such as the quality and quantity of safe breeding sites or food resources, and indirect social cues, such as the presence or breeding performance of conspecifics. Many reports show that nest predation leads to reduced fitness. However, it remains unclear how birds assess predation risk and how it affects breeding-site selection. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between predation risk and breeding-site selection in Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica). We assessed the cues that swallows use in their selection. We used nestsite characteristics related to predation and foraging sites as direct resource cues, number of breeding pairs, and breeding success in the previous year as indirect social cues, and number of old and undamaged old nests as direct resource and/or indirect social cues. Breeding-site preference was assessed using the arrival date of males. We showed that only the number of undamaged old nests was used for breeding-site selection. When comparing effects at two spatial scales, nest-site and home-range, the effect of the number of undamaged old nests occurred at the homerange scale only, suggesting that these nests are used as an indirect social cue rather than a direct resource cue to reduce the energy or time-consuming costs of nest building. We suggest that undamaged old nests may indicate the presence and breeding performance of conspecifics for several previous years. Because Barn Swallows are migratory birds, undamaged old nests may be a reliable indirect social cue and may reduce the time required to sample information at breeding sites.

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Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology

Cited by 1,179 publications

References 61 publications

Functional traits determine heterospecific use of risk‐related social information in forest birds of tropical South‐East Asia

Functional traits determine heterospecific use of risk‐related social information in forest birds of tropical South‐East Asia

Nest fidelity is driven by multi-scale information in a long-lived seabird

Social cues are preferred over resource cues for breeding-site selection in Barn Swallows

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