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.

尽管动物会通过调整活动节律以规避过度受热，但目前学界对这类行为的内在机制仍缺乏深入认知。随着全球气候变化，此类认知对于预测种群与群落的活动模式转变尤为关键。本研究围绕觅食决策如何随生物与非生物压力产生变化展开探究：通过在自然栖息地中追踪昼行性沙漠刺鼠的觅食行为，并量化觅食行为的能量与水分成本及收益，旨在解析风险管理与体温调节需求对觅食决策的影响机制。研究结果表明，水分需求对观测到的觅食决策影响最为显著。在干旱的栖息环境中，刺鼠在觅食种子时常会发生水分流失，且当水分流失量过高时，即便觅食可带来高额能量收益，它们也会终止觅食活动。此外，当能量消耗水平较高时，刺鼠的觅食频次会有所提升；而在种子密度较高、捕食风险较低的情境下，其觅食时长也会相应延长。深入洞悉能量与水分平衡机制，对于解析气候变化背景下施加于动物能量代谢、行为及生态学特征的选择压力，具有至关重要的意义。