Existing work highlights the ability of individuals to locate the most profitable food sources using optimal sampling. Models dealing with resource uncertainty predict that individuals should increase fat storage linearly during the day, a strategy that is clearly incompatible with avoiding predation.
Despite considerable work on body-mass strategies, the process relating to the discovery and sampling of resources has received much less attention. Therefore, they must ensure that they have access to enough resources to meet a higher rate of energy intake late in the day. During winter months, birds are under increased time and energy constraints resulting from shorter day length and colder temperatures. Under high perceived predation risk, individuals employ a strategy whereby they trade-off their starvation risk by reducing fat storage to maintain greater flight ability, delaying weight gain until later in the day. Small birds exhibit predictable management of body mass in order to manage overnight survival.
Late bird gets no worm Patch#
These results align with our predictions of a shift from patch discovery to exploitation over the course of the day. Based on the diurnal activity patterns in this population, overall rates of new arrivals were also significantly higher than expected in the morning and significantly lower than expected in the afternoon. We found that food deployed in the morning was discovered significantly more often than food deployed in the afternoon. Using automated data loggers, we tested whether a temporal component exists in the discovery of novel foraging locations by individuals in a mixed-species foraging guild. We suggest that individuals should follow a two-part strategy: prioritizing the discovery of food early in the day and exploiting the best patch late in the day. However, little is known about how individuals manage the opposing pressures of resource uncertainty and predation risks. Theoretical and empirical studies have shown that individuals can reduce predation risk by delaying feeding (and hence fat storage) until late afternoon. Animals need to manage the combined risks of predation and starvation in order to survive.
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