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Collective foraging in spatially complex nutritional environments.

Mathieu Lihoreau1, Michael A Charleston2, Alistair M Senior3,4

  • 1Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), University Paul Sabatier, CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse 31200, France mathieu.lihoreau@univ-tlse3.fr.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|July 5, 2017
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Animal foraging behavior depends on food distribution. Social interactions help groups find nutrients in scarce, patchy environments, but not in abundant, scattered ones, impacting group cohesion and nutrition.

Keywords:
collective behaviourforagingindividual-based modelnutritional geometrysocial interactionsspatial ecology

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Nutritional ecology
  • Spatial ecology

Background:

  • Social animals balance individual nutrition with group cohesion during foraging.
  • Previous studies focused on simplified experimental settings.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how the spatial structure of the nutritional landscape affects collective foraging dynamics in realistic environments.
  • To model nutritional behavior in animal groups within heterogeneous environments.

Main Methods:

  • An individual-based model was developed, integrating nutritional geometry, collective animal behavior, and spatial ecology.
  • The model simulated foraging in environments with varying food abundance, patchiness, and nutritional composition.

Main Results:

  • Food spatial distribution significantly constrains individuals' nutrient intake balancing.
  • Performance was lowest in environments with small, isolated patches of complementary foods.
  • Social interactions improved foraging in scarce, clumpy conditions but not in abundant, scattered ones.
  • Flexible search strategies based on individual nutritional state amplified social effects.

Conclusions:

  • Collective foraging benefits are environment-dependent.
  • Spatial structure is a critical factor in social nutrition dynamics.
  • The model offers a framework for future research in social nutrition.