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Tennessen JB, Holt MM, Wright BM, Hanson MB, Emmons CK, Giles DA, Hogan JT, Thornton SJ, Deecke VB. Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales. Behav Ecol 2023; 34:373-386. [PMID: 37192928 PMCID: PMC10183210 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arad002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
In cooperative species, human-induced rapid environmental change may threaten cost-benefit tradeoffs of group behavioral strategies that evolved in past environments. Capacity for behavioral flexibility can increase population viability in novel environments. Whether the partitioning of individual responsibilities within social groups is fixed or flexible across populations is poorly understood, despite its relevance for predicting responses to global change at the population and species levels and designing successful conservation programs. We leveraged bio-logging data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) to quantify patterns of fine-scale foraging movements and their relationships with demography. We reveal striking interpopulation differences in patterns of individual foraging behavior. Females from the endangered Southern Resident (SRKW) population captured less prey and spent less time pursuing prey than SRKW males or Northern Resident (NRKW) females, whereas NRKW females captured more prey than NRKW males. The presence of a calf (≤3 years) reduced the number of prey captured by adult females from both populations, but disproportionately so for SRKW. SRKW adult males with a living mother captured more prey than those whose mother had died, whereas the opposite was true for NRKW adult males. Across populations, males foraged in deeper areas than females, and SRKW captured prey deeper than NRKW. These population-level differences in patterns of individual foraging behavior challenge the existing paradigm that females are the disproportionate foragers in gregarious resident killer whales, and demonstrate considerable variation in the foraging strategies across populations of an apex marine predator experiencing different environmental stressors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer B Tennessen
- Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
- Lynker Technologies LLC, Leesburg, VA 20175, USA
| | - Marla M Holt
- Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Brianna M Wright
- Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7, Canada
| | - M Bradley Hanson
- Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Candice K Emmons
- Conservation Biology Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Deborah A Giles
- Department of Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Biology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | | | - Sheila J Thornton
- Pacific Science Enterprise Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, West Vancouver, BC V7V 1N6, Canada
| | - Volker B Deecke
- Institute of Science and Environment, University of Cumbria, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 9BB, UK
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Kumpan LT, Rothman JM, Chapman CA, Teichroeb JA. Playing it safe? Solitary vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) choose high-quality foods more than those in competition. Am J Primatol 2019; 81:e23002. [PMID: 31192490 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Revised: 05/02/2019] [Accepted: 05/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
An important goal in foraging ecology is to determine how biotic and abiotic variables impact the foraging decisions of wild animals and how they move throughout their multidimensional landscape. However, the interaction of food quality and feeding competition on foraging decisions is largely unknown. Here we examine the importance of food quality in a patch on the foraging decisions of wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda using a multidestination platform array. The overall nutritional composition of the vervet diet was assessed and found to be low in sodium and lipids, thus we conducted a series of experimental manipulations in which the array was varied in salt and oil content. Although vervets prioritized platforms containing key nutrients (i.e., sodium and lipids) overall, we found that solitary vervets prioritized nutrient-dense platforms more strongly than competing vervets. This finding was opposite to those in a similar experiment that manipulated food site quantity, suggesting that large, salient rewards may be worth competing over but slight differences in nutritional density may be only chosen when there are no potentially negative social consequences (i.e., aggression received). We also found that vervets chose platforms baited with oil-only, and oil combined with salt, but not salt-only, suggesting that energy was an important factor in food choice. Our findings demonstrate that when wild vervets detect differences in feeding patches that reflect nutritional composition, they factor these differences into their navigational and foraging decisions. In addition, our findings suggest that these nutritional differences may be considered alongside social variables, ultimately leading to the complex strategies we observed in this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Tamara Kumpan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jessica M Rothman
- Department of Anthropology, The New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, New York
| | - Colin A Chapman
- Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Julie A Teichroeb
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Pasquaretta C, Gómez-Moracho T, Heeb P, Lihoreau M. Exploring Interactions between the Gut Microbiota and Social Behavior through Nutrition. Genes (Basel) 2018; 9:E534. [PMID: 30404178 PMCID: PMC6266758 DOI: 10.3390/genes9110534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2018] [Revised: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 10/30/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristian Pasquaretta
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Tamara Gómez-Moracho
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Philipp Heeb
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paul Sabatier, ENSFEA, 31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France.
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Lihoreau M, Gómez-Moracho T, Pasquaretta C, Costa JT, Buhl C. Social nutrition: an emerging field in insect science. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2018; 28:73-80. [PMID: 30551770 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2018.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2018] [Revised: 05/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Nutrition is thought to be a major driver of social evolution, yet empirical support for this hypothesis is scarce. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology illuminate some of the mechanisms by which nutrition mediates social interactions in insects. We focus on experiments and models of nutritional geometry and argue that they provide a powerful means for comparing nutritional phenomena across species exhibiting various social ecologies. This approach, initially developed to study the nutritional behaviour of individual insects, has been increasingly used to study insect groups and societies, leading to the emerging field of social nutrition. We discuss future directions for exploring how these nutritional mechanisms may influence major social transitions in insects and other animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI); CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
| | - Tamara Gómez-Moracho
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI); CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
| | - Cristian Pasquaretta
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI); CNRS, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
| | - James T Costa
- Highlands Biological Station, 265 N. Sixth Street, Highlands, NC 28741, USA; Department of Biology, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723, USA
| | - Camille Buhl
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Southern Australia 5005, Australia
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Poissonnier LA, Lihoreau M, Gomez-Moracho T, Dussutour A, Buhl C. A theoretical exploration of dietary collective medication in social insects. JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY 2018; 106:78-87. [PMID: 28826630 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2017.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2017] [Revised: 08/11/2017] [Accepted: 08/16/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Animals often alter their food choices following a pathogen infection in order to increase immune function and combat the infection. Whether social animals that collect food for their brood or nestmates adjust their nutrient intake to the infection states of their social partners is virtually unexplored. Here we develop an individual-based model of nutritional geometry to examine the impact of collective nutrient balancing on pathogen spread in a social insect colony. The model simulates a hypothetical social insect colony infected by a horizontally transmitted parasite. Simulation experiments suggest that collective nutrition, by which foragers adjust their nutrient intake to simultaneously address their own nutritional needs as well as those of their infected nestmates, is an efficient social immunity mechanism to limit contamination when immune responses are short. Impaired foraging in infected workers can favour colony resilience when pathogen transmission rate is low (by reducing contacts with the few infected foragers) or trigger colony collapse when transmission rate is fast (by depleting the entire pool of foragers). Our theoretical examination of dietary collective medication in social insects suggests a new possible mechanism by which colonies can defend themselves against pathogens and provides a conceptual framework for experimental investigations of the nutritional immunology of social animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laure-Anne Poissonnier
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite campus, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
| | - Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), University Paul Sabatier, CNRS, UPS, France.
| | - Tamara Gomez-Moracho
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), University Paul Sabatier, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Audrey Dussutour
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), University Paul Sabatier, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Camille Buhl
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite campus, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
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Lihoreau M, Charleston MA, Senior AM, Clissold FJ, Raubenheimer D, Simpson SJ, Buhl J. Collective foraging in spatially complex nutritional environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0238. [PMID: 28673915 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Nutrition impinges on virtually all aspects of an animal's life, including social interactions. Recent advances in nutritional ecology show how social animals often trade-off individual nutrition and group cohesion when foraging in simplified experimental environments. Here, we explore how the spatial structure of the nutritional landscape influences these complex collective foraging dynamics in ecologically realistic environments. We introduce an individual-based model integrating key concepts of nutritional geometry, collective animal behaviour and spatial ecology to study the nutritional behaviour of animal groups in large heterogeneous environments containing foods with different abundance, patchiness and nutritional composition. Simulations show that the spatial distribution of foods constrains the ability of individuals to balance their nutrient intake, the lowest performance being attained in environments with small isolated patches of nutritionally complementary foods. Social interactions improve individual regulatory performances when food is scarce and clumpy, but not when it is abundant and scattered, suggesting that collective foraging is favoured in some environments only. These social effects are further amplified if foragers adopt flexible search strategies based on their individual nutritional state. Our model provides a conceptual and predictive framework for developing new empirically testable hypotheses in the emerging field of social nutrition.This article is part of the themed issue 'Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), University Paul Sabatier, CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse 31200, France
| | - Michael A Charleston
- School of Physical Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia
| | - Alistair M Senior
- Charles Perkins Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.,School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia
| | - Fiona J Clissold
- Charles Perkins Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.,School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - David Raubenheimer
- Charles Perkins Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.,School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Stephen J Simpson
- Charles Perkins Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia.,School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Jerome Buhl
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Southern Australia 5005, Australia
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Lihoreau M, Poissonnier LA, Isabel G, Dussutour A. Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods. J Exp Biol 2016; 219:2514-24. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.142257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/06/2016] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Animals, from insects to human, select foods to regulate their acquisition of key nutrients in amounts and balances maximising fitness. In species where the nutrition of juveniles depends on parents, adults must make challenging foraging decisions that simultaneously address their own nutrient needs as well as those of the progeny. Here we examined how fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster, a species where individuals eat and lay eggs in decaying fruits, integrate feeding decisions (individual nutrition) and oviposition decisions (offspring nutrition) when foraging. Using cafeteria assays with artificial diets varying in concentrations and ratios of protein to carbohydrates, we show that Drosophila females exhibit complex foraging patterns, alternating between laying eggs on high carbohydrate foods and feeding on foods with different nutrient contents depending on their own nutritional state. Although larvae showed faster development on high protein foods, both survival and learning performances were higher on balanced foods. We suggest that the apparent mismatch between the oviposition preference of females for high carbohydrate foods and the high performances of larvae on balanced foods reflects a natural situation where high carbohydrate ripened fruits gradually enrich in proteinaceous yeast as they start rotting, thereby yielding optimal nutrition for the developing larvae. Our findings that animals with rudimentary parental care uncouple feeding and egg-laying decisions in order to balance their own diet and provide a nutritionally optimal environment to their progeny reveals unsuspected levels of complexity in the nutritional ecology of parent-offspring interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Laure-Anne Poissonnier
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
- Current address: School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, 5005 12 SA, Australia
| | - Guillaume Isabel
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Audrey Dussutour
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
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