Recent prey capture experience and dynamic habitat quality mediate short-term foraging site fidelity in a seabird

Foraging site fidelity allows animals to increase their efficiency by returning to profitable feeding areas. However, the mechanisms underpinning why animals “stay” or “switch” sites have rarely been investigated. Here we explore how habitat quality and prior prey capture experience influence short-term site fidelity by the little penguin (Eudyptula minor). Using 88 consecutive foraging trips by 20 brooding penguins, we found that site fidelity was higher after foraging trips where environmental conditions were favourable, and after trips where prey capture success was high. When penguins exhibited lower site fidelity, the number of prey captures relative to the previous trip increased, suggesting that switches in foraging location were an adaptive strategy in response to low prey capture rates. Penguins foraged closer to where other penguins foraged on the same day than they did to the location of their own previous foraging site, and caught more prey when they foraged close together. This suggests that penguins aggregated flexibly when prey was abundant and accessible. Our results illustrate how foraging predators can integrate information about prior experience with contemporary information such as social cues. This gives insight into how animals combine information adaptively to exploit changing prey distribution in a dynamic environment.

觅食位点保真度（foraging site fidelity）可使动物通过返回高收益觅食区域提升觅食效率。然而，支撑动物选择‘留守’或‘转换’觅食位点的内在机制却鲜有研究。本研究以小企鹅（*Eudyptula minor*）为研究对象，探究栖息地质量与过往猎物捕获经历如何影响其短期觅食位点保真度。本研究分析了20只孵卵期小企鹅的88次连续觅食行程数据，结果发现：当环境条件适宜、且前次觅食的猎物捕获成功率较高时，小企鹅的觅食位点保真度更高。当小企鹅的觅食位点保真度降低时，其相较于前次行程的猎物捕获数量会有所提升，这表明转换觅食位点是应对低猎物捕获率的适应性策略。相较于自身过往的觅食位点，小企鹅当日的觅食位置更贴近其他同类的当日觅食区域，且集群觅食时的猎物捕获量更高，这表明当猎物丰富且易于获取时，小企鹅会灵活集群觅食。本研究结果阐明了觅食性捕食者如何整合过往经历信息与社会线索等实时信息，该发现为理解动物如何通过适应性整合各类信息、在动态环境中利用不断变化的猎物分布提供了新的见解。