Data from: 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来提升觅食效率。然而，目前鲜有研究探讨动物“坚守”或“转换”觅食位点背后的机制。本研究围绕栖息地质量与先前猎物捕获经历，对小企鹅（Eudyptula minor）的短期觅食位点保真度的影响展开探究。研究使用了20只育雏企鹅完成的88次连续觅食旅程（foraging trips）的数据，结果显示：当环境条件适宜，且本次觅食旅程的猎物捕获成功率（prey capture success）较高时，企鹅的觅食位点保真度更高。当企鹅表现出较低的位点保真度时，其本次旅程相较于前一次旅程的猎物捕获量有所提升，这表明觅食位置转换是应对低猎物捕获率的适应性策略。相较于自身先前的觅食位点，企鹅当日的觅食位置更贴近其他企鹅的当日觅食区域，且集群觅食时的猎物捕获量更多。这提示当猎物丰富且易于获取时，企鹅会灵活地聚集觅食。本研究结果阐明了觅食性捕食者如何将过往经验信息与社会线索（social cues）等当代信息进行整合，为动物如何适应性地整合信息以在动态环境中利用不断变化的猎物分布提供了新的认识。