Cofeeding at rich clumped food patches in free-ranging dogs: social tolerance or scramble competition?

ABSTRACT:

Abstract

Animals are generally expected to monopolize food patches whenever possible. However, cofeeding within a defendable range occurs in many species, particularly at larger food patches, but the mechanism behind that remains underexplored. In theory, it could be due to multiple, mutually non-exclusive processes. First, larger food patches may saturate multiple top-ranking individuals, enabling cofeeding even under pure contest competition. Second, cofeeding may result from social tolerance where dominant individuals provide cofeeding concessions to certain subordinates. Third, cofeeding may result from prevailing scramble competition (i.e., indirect competition through patch exploitation) caused by large numbers of individuals that prevent monopolization ("swamping"). To inves

SUBMITTER: Berghanel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11996968 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature