Good vibrations: Remote-tactile foraging success of wading birds is positively affected by the water content of substrates they forage in

Some taxa of wading birds can locate buried prey by detecting vibratory cues in their foraging substrates while probe-foraging, using a sensory modality called “remote-touch”. As more saturated substrates transmit vibrations better, we predict that these birds can detect prey in wetter substrates more easily. We used sensory assays to test whether substrate water content affects the remote-touch foraging success rate of Hadeda Ibises, Bostrychia hagedash. The birds were more successful at locating prey using vibratory cues than when relying on random direct contact with the beak alone. Their remote-touch foraging success rate was positively affected by increasing water contents of the soil, but water content had no effect on their direct contact foraging success (indicating this is not an artefact of ease of probing). This may partially explain the link between the range expansion of this species in southern Africa and increased soil irrigation, as it is easier for the birds to detect p..., , , # Good vibrations: Remote-tactile foraging success of wading birds is positively affected by the water content of substrates they forage in

Access this dataset on Dryad [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvt1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvt1)

This is the data supporting our publication. Data were collected as part of a series of foraging experiments on captive Hadeda Ibises (*Bostrychia hagedash*), in order to a) confirm whether the species are able to use remote-touch probe-foraging (PART 1); and b) whether soil water content affects their ability to locate prey using remote-touch (PART 2).

**Description of the data:**

The data are contained in three .csv files.

\"part 1\" includes data from part one of our experiments, used to assess the effects of different sensory cues (vibratory, auditory, and chemical) and the presence of white noise on the birds' foraging success, when soil water content was kept constant.

\"part 2\" includes data from part two of our experiments, used...

部分涉禽类群在探喙觅食时，可通过感知觅食基底的振动信号定位埋藏猎物，该感知方式被称为远程触觉（remote-touch）。由于基质含水量越高，振动传导效率越好，我们预测此类涉禽能更轻松地在湿润基质中定位猎物。我们通过感官实验，检验基底含水量是否会影响哈达朱鹭（Hadeda Ibises，*Bostrychia hagedash*）的远程触觉觅食成功率。相较于仅依靠喙部随机直接接触的对照组，此类鸟类借助振动信号定位猎物的成功率显著更高。其远程触觉觅食成功率随土壤含水量升高呈正向提升，但土壤含水量对其直接接触觅食成功率无显著影响（这表明该结果并非探喙难度变化所导致的假象）。该发现或可部分解释该物种在南非南部的分布扩张与土壤灌溉面积增加之间的关联——因为此类鸟类能更轻松地探测到……，，，# 优质振动：涉禽远程触觉觅食成功率与觅食基底含水量呈正相关

可在Dryad平台获取本数据集：https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvt1

本数据集为对应研究论文的支撑数据，采集自针对圈养哈达朱鹭（*Bostrychia hagedash*）开展的一系列觅食实验，旨在达成两大研究目标：a）确认该物种是否能够采用远程触觉探喙觅食模式（PART 1）；b）验证土壤含水量是否会影响其借助远程触觉定位猎物的能力（PART 2）。

**数据说明：**

本数据集包含3个CSV文件。

"part 1"包含本研究第一部分实验的数据，用于评估在土壤含水量保持恒定的条件下，不同感官线索（振动、听觉与化学信号）以及白噪声的存在对鸟类觅食成功率的影响。

"part 2"包含本研究第二部分实验的数据，用于……