Data from: Foraging activity pattern is shaped by water loss rates in a diurnal desert rodent

Although animals fine-tune their activity to avoid excess heat, we still
lack a mechanistic understanding of such behaviors. As the global climate
changes, such understanding is particularly important for projecting
shifts in the activity patterns of populations and communities. We studied
how foraging decisions vary with biotic and abiotic pressures. By tracking
the foraging behavior of diurnal desert spiny mice in their natural
habitat and estimating the energy and water costs and benefits of
foraging, we asked how risk management and thermoregulatory requirements
affect foraging decisions. We found that water requirements had the
strongest effect on the observed foraging decisions. In their arid
environment, mice often lose water while foraging for seeds and cease
foraging even at high energetic returns when water loss is high. Mice also
foraged more often when energy expenditure was high and for longer times
under high seed densities and low predation risks. Gaining insight into
both energy and water balance will be crucial to understanding the forces
exerted by changing climatic conditions on animal energetics, behavior,
and ecology.