Data from: Exploring foraging decisions in a social primate using discrete choice models

There is a growing appreciation of the multiple social and nonsocial factors influencing the foraging behavior of social animals, but little understanding of how these factors depend on habitat characteristics or individual traits. This partly reflects the difficulties inherent in using conventional statistical techniques to analyze multi-factor, multi-context foraging decisions. Discrete choice models provide a way to do so, and we demonstrate this by using them to investigate patch preference in a wild population of social foragers (chacma baboons, Papio ursinus). Data were collected from 29 adults across two social groups encompassing 683 foraging decisions over a six-month period, and the results interpreted using an information theoretic approach. Baboon foraging decisions were influenced by multiple nonsocial and social factors, and were often contingent on the characteristics of the habitat or individual. Differences in decision-making between habitats were consistent with changes in interference competition costs but not changes in social foraging benefits. Individual differences in decision-making were suggestive of a trade-off between dominance rank and social capital. Our findings emphasize that taking a multi-factor, multi-context approach is important to fully understand animal decision-making. We also demonstrate how discrete choice models can be used to achieve this.

学界日益意识到，影响社会性动物觅食行为的社会与非社会因素种类繁多，但对于这些因素如何随栖息地特征及个体特质发生变化，却仍缺乏足够的认知。这在一定程度上源于传统统计技术在分析多因素、多情境觅食决策时所固有的难题。离散选择模型（discrete choice models）为解决此类问题提供了可行方案，我们通过将其应用于野生社会性觅食种群（查玛狒狒，Papio ursinus）的斑块偏好研究，验证了这一点。本研究的数据采集自两个社会群体中的29只成年个体，涵盖了6个月周期内的683次觅食决策，并通过信息论方法对结果进行解读。研究结果显示，狒狒的觅食决策受到多种非社会与社会因素的共同影响，且往往依循栖息地特征或个体特质发生变化。不同栖息地间的决策差异与干扰竞争成本的变化趋势一致，但与社会觅食收益的变化并无关联。个体间的决策差异则暗示出优势等级与社会资本之间存在权衡关系。我们的研究结果强调，采用多因素、多情境的分析路径，对于全面阐明动物决策机制至关重要。同时，本研究也展示了离散选择模型在该类研究中的具体应用方式。