LaRocque Megan, Wijmenga Jan J, Mathot Kimberley J
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada.
Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada.
Behav Ecol. 2024 Oct 3;35(6):arae080. doi: 10.1093/beheco/arae080. eCollection 2024 Nov-Dec.
Spatial ecology tends to focus on average movement patterns within animal groups; however, recent studies highlight the value of considering movement decisions both within and among individuals. We used a marked population of black-capped chickadees (), to assess the causes and consequences of within- and among-individual differences in chickadee space use. Individuals that used feeders in addition to their most-visited "core feeder" were defined as engaging in off-territory feeder use. We found that females were more likely than males to visit off-territory feeders as ambient temperatures decrease and energetic demands increase. This may be due to sex-related differences in dominance, where males which are the dominant sex in chickadees, have priority access to feeders, while females must increase their foraging areas to meet higher energetic demand. We also found that independent of temperature, adult males were less likely than juvenile males and both juvenile and adult females to forage off-territory. We suggest that this may be due to age-specific benefits of space use in males, where un-paired juvenile males may increase feeder exploration to gain information about potential mates. Finally, we found that chickadees that had a higher propensity to visit off-territory feeders were less likely to survive to the next fall. Overall, our results suggest that dominance hierarchies and individual energetics impact within- and among-individual variation in off-territory feeder use. We provide suggestions for future studies to further investigate fitness-related consequences of within- and among-individual variation in space use.
空间生态学往往侧重于动物群体内的平均移动模式；然而，最近的研究强调了考虑个体内部和个体之间移动决策的价值。我们使用了一群有标记的黑顶山雀（），来评估山雀空间利用中个体内部和个体之间差异的原因及后果。除了其最常光顾的“核心喂食器”外还使用其他喂食器的个体被定义为进行领地外喂食器使用。我们发现，随着环境温度降低和能量需求增加，雌性比雄性更有可能光顾领地外的喂食器。这可能是由于支配地位上与性别相关的差异，在山雀中占主导地位的雄性有优先使用喂食器的机会，而雌性必须扩大其觅食区域以满足更高的能量需求。我们还发现，与温度无关，成年雄性比幼年雄性以及幼年和成年雌性在领地外觅食的可能性更小。我们认为这可能是由于雄性在空间利用上存在特定年龄的优势，未配对的幼年雄性可能会增加对喂食器的探索以获取有关潜在配偶的信息。最后，我们发现更倾向于光顾领地外喂食器的山雀活到下一个秋季的可能性较小。总体而言，我们的结果表明，支配等级制度和个体能量状况会影响领地外喂食器使用中个体内部和个体之间的差异。我们为未来的研究提供了建议，以进一步调查空间利用中个体内部和个体之间差异与适应性相关的后果。
