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The contribution of private and public information in foraging by Australasian gannets

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Abstract

Predators that forage on foods with temporally and spatially patchy distributions may rely on private or public sources of information to enhance their chances of foraging success. Using GPS tracking, field observations, and videography, we examined potential sites and mechanisms of information acquisition in departures for foraging trips by colonially breeding Australasian gannets (Morus serrator). Analyses of the bill-fencing ceremony between mated pairs of breeding gannets did not detect correlations between parameters of this reciprocal behavior and foraging trips, as would have been predicted if gannets used this behavior as a source of private information. Instead, 60 % of the departing birds flew directly to join water rafts of other conspecific en route to the feeding grounds. The departure of solitary birds from the water rafts was synchronized (within 60 s) with the arrival of incoming foragers and also among departing birds. Furthermore, solitary departing birds from the rafts left in the same directional quadrant (90º slices) as the prior arriving (67 %) and also prior departing forager (79 %). When associated plunge dives of conspecific were visible from the colony, providing a public source of information, gannets more often departed from the water rafts in groups. Our study thus provides evidence for the use of water rafts, but not the nest site, as locations of information transfer, and also confirms the use of local enhancement as a strategy for foraging flights by Australasian gannets.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge T. Fettermann, S. Clements, G. Greyling, A. Boyer, L. Meynier, L. van Zonneveld, T. Greenawalt, E. Martínez, K. & S. Machovsky, and S. Ismar for assistance in the field. We also thank the Napier Department of Conservation office for the permission to use the ranger’s house during field work and the Cape Kidnappers’ landowners and farm managers for access to their property. We thank E. Martínez, S. Dwyer and L. Pichegru for helpful comments on early versions of the manuscript and I. Couzin for his assistance during the funding application. This research was funded by National Geographic Waitt Grant and the Massey University Research Fund.

Ethical standards

The experiments in the present study were conducted under Massey University Animal Ethics (09/76) and New Zealand Department of Conservation (DoC) permits (ECHB-23237-RES).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Veterinary Science and School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Gabriel E. Machovsky-Capuska & David Raubenheimer

  2. Coastal-Marine Research Group, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Gabriel E. Machovsky-Capuska

  3. Department of Psychology, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Mark E. Hauber

  4. New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Eric Libby

  5. Human-Wildllife Interaction Research Group, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Christophe Amiot

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  1. Gabriel E. Machovsky-Capuska
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Correspondence to Gabriel E. Machovsky-Capuska.

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Machovsky-Capuska, G.E., Hauber, M.E., Libby, E. et al. The contribution of private and public information in foraging by Australasian gannets. Anim Cogn 17, 849–858 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-013-0716-x

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