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Cuthill, I. C., Kacelnik, A., Krebs, J. R., Haccou, P., & Iwasa, Y. (1990). Starlings exploiting patches: the effect of recent experience on foraging decisions. Anim. Behav., 40(4), 625–640.
Abstract: Laboratory and field experiments have shown that, as predicted by the marginal value model, starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, stay longer in a food patch when the average travel time between patches is long. A laboratory analogue of a patchy environment was used to investigate how starlings respond to rapidly fluctuating changes in travel time in order to find out the length of experience over which information is integrated. When there was a progressive increase in the amount of work required to obtain successive food items in a patch (experiment 1), birds consistently took more prey after long than after short travel times; travel experience before the most recent had no effect on the number of prey taken. Such behaviour does not maximize the rate of energy intake in this environment. The possibility that this is the result of a simple constraint on crop capacity is rejected as, when successive prey were equally easy to obtain up until a stepwise depletion of the patch (experiment 2), birds took equal numbers of prey per visit after long and short travel times: the rate-maximizing behaviour. A series of models are developed to suggest the possible constraints on optimal behaviour that affect starlings in the type of environment mimicked by experiment 1.
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Kacelnik, A. (1990). R.C. Bolies and M.D. Beecher, Editors, Evolution and Learning, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey (1988), p. x. Anim. Behav., 40(3), 602–603.
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Cassini, M. H., Kacelnik, A., & Segura, E. T. (1990). The tale of the screaming hairy armadillo, the guinea pig and the marginal value theorem. Anim. Behav., 39(6), 1030–1050.
Abstract: Foraging by screaming hairy armadillos, Chaetophractus vellerosus, and guinea pigs, Cavia porcellus, was studied in the laboratory. The main question was whether patch exploitation varies with overall capture rate as predicted by the marginal value theorem (MVT). Armadillos in experiment I and guinea pigs in experiment II experienced a single travel time between depleting patches of two kinds: good and poor. There were two treatments, which differed in the quality of poor patches. MVT predicts that within a treatment, more prey should be taken from good than from poor patches and between treatments, good patches should be exploited in inverse relation to the quality of poor patches and poor patches should be exploited in direct relation to their own quality. In experiment III, guinea pigs experienced three treatments which differed in the travel requirement, while the two patch types remained the same. MVT predicts that within a treatment more prey should be taken from good than from poor patches and that between treatments more prey should be taken from both patch types as travel requirement increases. The qualitative predictions were supported in the three experiments. The quantitative fit was good but there was a bias towards more severe patch exploitation than predicted. The results indicate that in these species patch exploitation depends on overall food availability as predicted by the MVT when overall food availability differs either because of patch type composition or because of differences in travel requirement between patches.
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Kacelnik, A. (1987). Information primacy or preference for familiar foraging techniques? A critique of Inglis & Ferguson. Anim. Behav., 35(3), 925–926.
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Kacelnik, A., & Houston, A. I. (1984). Some effects of energy costs on foraging strategies. Anim. Behav., 32(2), 609–614.
Abstract: We consider the effect of including energy costs on the optimal strategy for animals exploiting a depleting food resource. In the context of central place foraging this leads to the problem of what load size should be brought back to the central place. Two strategies are discussed: (i) maximize gross rate of energy delivery and (ii) maximize net rate of energy delivery. The optimal load size (or optimal patch time) for net maximizers is not always larger than for gross maximizers, as has been claimed. Instead, the difference in optimal load size has the same sign as the difference between metabolic rates of travelling and foraging. We point out that the influence of costs has not always been correctly incorporated in experimental tests of the theory.
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Roberts, J., Hunter, M. L., & Kacelnik, A. (1981). The ground effect and acoustic communication. Anim. Behav., 29(2), 633–634.
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Roberts, J., Kacelnik, A., & Hunter, M. L. (1979). A model of sound interference in relation to acoustic communication. Anim. Behav., 27(Part 4), 1271–1273.
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Kacelnik, A. (1979). The foraging efficiency of great tits (Parus major L.) in relation to light intensity. Anim. Behav., 27(Part 1), 237–241.
Abstract: I report an experiment aimed at testing whether foraging efficiency of great tits is limited by light intensity at the time of the dawn chorus. Captive great tits hunting for prey under different luminance conditions were less successful in finding prey when foraging, hunted for a lower proportion of their time, and handled individual prey items for longer when luminance was under approximately 7 cd/m2. This luminance is not reached in the field until after the time of the dawn chorus, suggesting that in the early morning foraging is limited by light intensity. I suggest that a satisfactory functional explanation of the dawn chorus must take into account the comparatively low foraging opportunity early in the morning, as well as the factors affecting the opportunity for singing and other territorial activities.
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Jennings, D. J., Gammell, M. P., Carlin, C. M., & Hayden, T. J. (2004). Effect of body weight, antler length, resource value and experience on fight duration and intensity in fallow deer. Anim. Behav., 68(1), 213–221.
Abstract: We tested predictions of evolutionary game theory focusing on fight duration and intensity during contests between European fallow deer, Dama dama L. We examined the relation between contest duration and intensity and resource-holding potential (RHP; body weight and antler size), in an effort to reveal the assessment rules used by competing males. We examined other potential determinants of duration and intensity: resource value (the oestrous female) and experience of agonistic interactions. Asymmetry in body weight or antler length of contestants was not correlated with fight duration. Body weight and antler length of the fight winner or loser were also not correlated with fight duration. Neither were the body weight of the heavier or lighter animal or the antler length of the animal that had longer or shorter antlers. A measure of intensity (the jump clash) was positively related to the body weight of the losing animal and the lighter member of the dyad. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that opponents escalate contest intensity based on assessment of their own ability rather than through mutual assessment. There was no evidence that resource value is an important factor in either fight duration or intensity in this population. As the number of fights between pairs of males increased, there was a decrease in fight duration. Fights were longer when at least one member of a competing pair of males had previously experienced a victory.
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Jennings, D. J., Gammell, M. P., Carlin, C. M., & Hayden, T. J. (2003). Is the parallel walk between competing male fallow deer, Dama dama, a lateral display of individual quality? Anim. Behav., 65(5), 1005–1012.
Abstract: During competitive encounters protagonists are expected to use signals of individual quality particularly if there is a risk of injury or death. Lateral presentation of body profile, by which information regarding phenotypic characteristics associated with individual quality are displayed, may represent such a strategy. During aggressive interactions, male fallow deer frequently engage in parallel walking which is assumed to represent a mutual display of quality, as mediated by exposure of the maximal profile of the body or antlers. We examined the context and role of the parallel walk during competitive encounters to investigate whether there was evidence that dyads of competing males were assessing differences in phenotypic characteristics. There was no evidence to support the hypotheses that the parallel walk is a lateral display of body size or weaponry or that its use is associated with a reduced level of escalated or risky behaviours during fighting. Total time spent fighting was not shorter when a parallel walk was present than when there was no parallel walk. The parallel walk was highly associated with fighting and it was more likely to be initiated by the subsequent loser. Furthermore, parallel walking frequently followed bouts of fighting and as such may represent a strategy that permits an animal the opportunity to decide whether to continue fighting. Parallel walking was also associated with a failure to resolve contests in favour of one animal indicating that it may be a means of withdrawing from further fighting without incurring a loss in dominance status. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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