Foraging flexibility and search patterns are unlinked during breeding in a free-ranging seabird.

ABSTRACT: In order to maximize foraging efficiency in a varying environment, predators are expected to optimize their search strategy. Environmental conditions are one important factor affecting these movement patterns, but variations in breeding constraints (self-feeding vs. feeding young and self-feeding) during different breeding stages (incubation vs. chick-rearing) are often overlooked, so that the mechanisms responsible for such behavioral shifts are still unknown. Here, to test how search patterns are affected at different breeding stages and to explore the proximate causes of these variations, we deployed data loggers to record both position (global positioning system) and dive activity (time-depth recorders) of a colonial breeding seabird, the razorbill Alca torda. Over a period of 3

SUBMITTER: Shoji A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4791460 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature