A social foraging trade- off in echolocating bats reveals that they benefit from some conspecifics but are impaired when many are around

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Krivoruchko, Ksenia; Koblitz, Jens C.; Goldshtein, Aya; Biljman, Katarina; Guillen-Servent, Antonio; Yovel, Yossi
• 署名单位: Tel Aviv University; Max Planck Society; Max Planck Society; Instituto de Ecologia - Mexico; Tel Aviv University; Tel Aviv University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-10664
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321724121
• 发表日期: 2024-07-23
• 关键词: behavior; size; INFORMATION; mechanisms; density; calls

摘要

Social foraging is very common in the animal kingdom. Numerous studies have documented collective foraging in various species and many reported the attraction of various species to foraging conspecifics. It is nonetheless difficult to quantify the benefits and costs of collective foraging, especially in the wild. We examined the benefits and costs of social foraging using on- board microphones mounted on freely foraging Molossus nigricans bats. This allowed us to quantify the bats' attacks on prey and to assess their success as a function of conspecific density. We found that the bats spent most of their time foraging at low conspecific densities, during which their attacks were most successful in terms of prey items captured per time unit. Notably, their capture rate dropped when conspecific density became either too high or too low. Our findings thus demonstrate a clear social foraging trade- off in which the presence of a few conspecifics probably improves foraging success, whereas the presence of too many impairs it.