Discrimination behavior mediates foraging quality versus quantity trade-offs: nut choice in wild rodents

doi:10.1002/ece3.2967

	Discrimination behavior mediates foraging quality versus quantity trade-offs: nut choice in wild rodents
	Chen, Wenwen 1; Zhang, Ze 1; Buesching, Christina D.; Newman, Chris ; Macdonald, David W.; Xie, Zongqiang1 ; Sun, Shucun ; Zhou, Youbing 1,2
	2017
发表期刊	BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
ISSN	1045-2249
卷号	28 期号:2 页码:607-616
摘要	Discrimination, the ability to distinguish sensory stimuli and respond accordingly, is a critical factor underscoring optimal foraging decisions. Nevertheless, little is known about how mammals discriminate between apparently similar foods of different quality. Here, we compared the foraging behavior of Chinese white-bellied rats, Niviventer confucianus, and Edwards's long-tailed giant rats, Leopoldamys edwardsi, under natural conditions in the field and in a captive enclosure without predation/competition. We examined the behavioral processes involved in discriminating between sound (i.e., undamaged) and insect larvae-infested nuts of seguin chestnuts (Castanea seguinii) and demonstrated that both rats could discriminate nut quality, where nut examination improved the rats' success rate at selecting sound nuts. Despite similar extents of discrimination-derived benefit in both settings for each species, differences between species-specific discrimination processes were identified. Chinese white-bellied rats engaged in a higher relative frequency and longer duration of nut examination in the enclosure than in the wild. This indicates that they alter their feeding strategy to trade-off selection for nut quality in captivity for a quantity-driven strategy in the field. In contrast, giant rats showed a consistent relative frequency of nut examination in both experimental settings. Their fixed strategy balanced food quality and quantity primarily to maximize caloric uptake without compromise when faced with predation or competition risk. We posit that this behavioral difference in optimal foraging between rat species is mediated by their differing, size-dependent energetic requirements as well as the higher competition pressure and predation risk faced by the approximately 8 times smaller white-bellied rats.
关键词	discrimination ability food quality food quantity optimal foraging strategy seed/nut choice
学科领域	Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Evolutionary Biology
DOI	10.1002/ece3.2967
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
WOS关键词	BODY-SIZE ; SEED DISPERSAL ; PREDATION RISK ; DECISIONS ; SELECTION ; INFESTATION ; SHENNONGJIA ; STRATEGIES ; VIGILANCE ; ACCURACY
WOS记录号	WOS:000403273000001
出版者	OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
文献子类	Article
出版地	CARY
EISSN	1465-7279
资助机构	National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [31470491, 31500359]
作者邮箱	shcs@nju.edu.cn
作品OA属性	Green Published, gold
引用统计	被引频次：30[WOS] [WOS记录] [WOS相关记录]
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://ir.ibcas.ac.cn/handle/2S10CLM1/22202
专题	植被与环境变化国家重点实验室
作者单位	1.Nanjing Univ, Sch Life Sci, Dept Ecol, 163 Xianlin Ave, Nanjing 210093, Jiangsu, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, State Key Lab Vegetat & Environm Change, 20 Nanxincun, Beijing 100093, Peoples R China 3.Univ Oxford, Recanati Kaplan Ctr, Dept Zool, Wildlife Conservat Res Unit, Tubney House, Abingdon OX13 5QL, Oxon, England
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Chen, Wenwen,Zhang, Ze,Buesching, Christina D.,et al. Discrimination behavior mediates foraging quality versus quantity trade-offs: nut choice in wild rodents[J]. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY,2017,28(2):607-616.
APA	Chen, Wenwen.,Zhang, Ze.,Buesching, Christina D..,Newman, Chris.,Macdonald, David W..,...&Zhou, Youbing.(2017).Discrimination behavior mediates foraging quality versus quantity trade-offs: nut choice in wild rodents.BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY,28(2),607-616.
MLA	Chen, Wenwen,et al."Discrimination behavior mediates foraging quality versus quantity trade-offs: nut choice in wild rodents".BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY 28.2(2017):607-616.

条目包含的文件
文件名称/大小	文献类型	版本类型	开放类型	使用许可
Ge-2017-Geographical（490KB）	期刊论文	出版稿	开放获取	CC BY-NC-SA	浏览请求全文