Individuals of a group-living shorebird show smaller home range overlap when food availability is low.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Group living animals, such as shorebirds foraging on intertidal mudflats, may use social information about where to find hidden food items. However, flocking also increases intraspecific competition for resources, which may be exacerbated by food scarcity. Therefore, although aggregation may bring benefits, it may also increase the intensity of intraspecific competition.

Methods

We examined this trade-off in adult great knots Calidris tenuirostris, a molluscivorous long-distance migrating shorebird species, using interannual variation based on 2 years with different levels of food availability during their northward migratory staging in the northern Yellow Sea, China. We estimated individual home ranges and the extent of spatial overlap of home ranges of individua

SUBMITTER: Peng HB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10612227 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature