Data from: Boldness predicts an individual's position along an exploration-exploitation foraging trade-off

Individuals do not have complete information about the environment and therefore they face a trade-off between gathering information (exploration) and gathering resources (exploitation). Studies have shown individual differences in components of this trade-off but how stable these strategies are in a population and the intrinsic drivers of these differences is not well understood.
Top marine predators are expected to experience a particularly strong trade-off as many species have large foraging ranges and their prey often have a patchy distribution. This environment leads these species to exhibit pronounced exploration and exploitation phases but differences between individuals are poorly resolved. Personality differences are known to be important in foraging behaviour but also in the trade-off between exploration and exploitation. Here we test whether personality predicts an individual exploration-exploitation strategy using wide ranging wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) as a model system.
Using GPS tracking data from 276 wandering albatrosses, we extract foraging parameters indicative of exploration (searching) and exploitation (foraging) and show that foraging effort, time in patch and size of patch are strongly correlated, demonstrating these are indicative of an exploration-exploitation strategy. Furthermore, we show these are consistent within individuals and appear stable in the population, with no reproductive advantage.
The searching and foraging behaviour of bolder birds placed them towards the exploration end of the trade-off, whereas shy birds showed greater exploitation. This result provides a mechanism through which individual foraging strategies may emerge. Age and sex affected components of the trade-off, but not the trade-off itself, suggesting these factors may drive behavioural compensation to maintain resource acquisition and this was supported by the evidence that there were no fitness consequence of any EE trait nor the trade-off itself.
These results demonstrate a clear trade-off between information gathering and exploitation of prey patches, and reveals for the first time that boldness may drive these differences. This provides a mechanism through which widely reported links between personality and foraging may emerge.

个体无法获取环境的完整信息，因此在收集信息（探索，exploration）与获取资源（利用，exploitation）之间面临权衡（trade-off）。已有研究揭示了该权衡各组分的个体差异，但目前学界对这些策略在种群中的稳定性，以及个体差异的内在驱动机制仍缺乏充分认知。
顶级海洋捕食者面临的权衡尤为显著——多数此类物种的觅食范围极广，且猎物通常呈斑块状分布。该环境特征使得这些物种会表现出清晰的探索与利用阶段，但个体间的差异尚未得到充分解析。已有研究表明，性格差异不仅对觅食行为至关重要，同样也会影响探索-利用（exploration-exploitation）权衡。本研究以活动范围广阔的漂泊信天翁（Diomedea exulans）为模式系统，探究性格是否能够预测个体的探索-利用策略。
本研究利用276只漂泊信天翁的GPS追踪数据，提取了表征探索（搜寻，searching）与利用（觅食，foraging）的觅食参数，结果显示觅食投入、斑块停留时间与斑块大小三者间存在强相关性，证明这些参数可作为探索-利用策略的有效表征。此外，研究发现这些参数在个体内部具有一致性，且在种群中表现稳定，且未发现其存在繁殖优势。
性格大胆的个体，其搜寻与觅食行为更偏向权衡中的探索端；而性格羞怯的个体则更多表现出利用行为。该结果为个体觅食策略的形成提供了潜在机制。年龄与性别会影响权衡的各组分，但不会改变权衡本身，这表明上述因素可能会驱动行为补偿以维持资源获取能力，而该推论得到了以下证据的支持：所有探索-利用（EE，exploration-exploitation）性状及权衡本身均未对适合度产生影响。
本研究结果证实了信息收集与猎物斑块利用之间存在明确的权衡，并首次揭示了大胆性可能是导致上述个体差异的驱动因素。该发现为学界广泛报道的性格与觅食行为之间的关联提供了潜在的作用机制。