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Foraging success of biological Levy flights recorded in situ

Foraging success of biological Levy flights recorded in situ
Foraging success of biological Levy flights recorded in situ
It is an open question how animals find food in dynamic natural environments where they possess little or no knowledge of where resources are located. Foraging theory predicts that in environments with sparsely distributed target resources, where forager knowledge about resources’ locations is incomplete, Lévy flight movements optimize the success of random searches. However, the putative success of Lévy foraging has been demonstrated only in model simulations. Here, we use high-temporal-resolution Global
Positioning System (GPS) tracking of wandering (Diomedea exulans) and black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys) with simultaneous recording of prey captures, to show that both species exhibit Lévy and Brownian movement patterns. We find that total prey masses captured by wandering albatrosses during Lévy movements exceed daily energy requirements by nearly fourfold, and approached yields by Brownian movements in other habitats. These results, together with our reanalysis of previously
published albatross data, overturn the notion that albatrosses do not exhibit Lévy patterns during foraging, and demonstrate that Lévy flights of predators in dynamic natural environments present a beneficial alternative strategy to simple, spatially intensive behaviors. Our findings add support to the possibility that biological
Lévy flight may have naturally evolved as a search strategy in response to sparse resources and scant information.
optimal foraging, organism, predator-prey, telemetry, evolution
0027-8424
7169-7174
Humphries, Nicolas E.
9246d06a-396a-4c05-9721-dc340e75a4d0
Weimerskirch, Henri
fb5128e3-1789-4c1b-91b7-cabd1d8d7547
Queiroz, Nuno
1b1b741e-a2ee-49c2-bbcc-2864044ba8e3
Southall, Emily J.
0aa881e6-3e99-424f-bd6b-9720c1ab3c21
Sims, David W.
7234b444-25e2-4bd5-8348-a1c142d0cf81
Humphries, Nicolas E.
9246d06a-396a-4c05-9721-dc340e75a4d0
Weimerskirch, Henri
fb5128e3-1789-4c1b-91b7-cabd1d8d7547
Queiroz, Nuno
1b1b741e-a2ee-49c2-bbcc-2864044ba8e3
Southall, Emily J.
0aa881e6-3e99-424f-bd6b-9720c1ab3c21
Sims, David W.
7234b444-25e2-4bd5-8348-a1c142d0cf81

Humphries, Nicolas E., Weimerskirch, Henri, Queiroz, Nuno, Southall, Emily J. and Sims, David W. (2012) Foraging success of biological Levy flights recorded in situ. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (19), 7169-7174. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1121201109).

Record type: Article

Abstract

It is an open question how animals find food in dynamic natural environments where they possess little or no knowledge of where resources are located. Foraging theory predicts that in environments with sparsely distributed target resources, where forager knowledge about resources’ locations is incomplete, Lévy flight movements optimize the success of random searches. However, the putative success of Lévy foraging has been demonstrated only in model simulations. Here, we use high-temporal-resolution Global
Positioning System (GPS) tracking of wandering (Diomedea exulans) and black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys) with simultaneous recording of prey captures, to show that both species exhibit Lévy and Brownian movement patterns. We find that total prey masses captured by wandering albatrosses during Lévy movements exceed daily energy requirements by nearly fourfold, and approached yields by Brownian movements in other habitats. These results, together with our reanalysis of previously
published albatross data, overturn the notion that albatrosses do not exhibit Lévy patterns during foraging, and demonstrate that Lévy flights of predators in dynamic natural environments present a beneficial alternative strategy to simple, spatially intensive behaviors. Our findings add support to the possibility that biological
Lévy flight may have naturally evolved as a search strategy in response to sparse resources and scant information.

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More information

Published date: 2012
Keywords: optimal foraging, organism, predator-prey, telemetry, evolution
Organisations: Ocean Biochemistry & Ecosystems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 340027
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/340027
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: e1d65e51-8171-4cc5-9046-be45ae9ff279
ORCID for David W. Sims: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0916-7363

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 06 Jun 2012 15:46
Last modified: 19 Jun 2024 01:44

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Contributors

Author: Nicolas E. Humphries
Author: Henri Weimerskirch
Author: Nuno Queiroz
Author: Emily J. Southall
Author: David W. Sims ORCID iD

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