Optimal foraging: The influence of intraspecific competition on diet selection

Summary

Three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) showed a relative preference for a familiar prey size when hunting for two sizes of Daphnia magna in high density. This result is not compatible with the ‘apparent size’ hypothesis. Ten groups were investigated, each consisting of two stickle-backs tested under three consecutive experimental conditions, to establish whether the function of the preference for a familiar prey size could be avoidance of competition.

First, the relative competitive ability of each fish was determined by the proportion it consumed of three series of 60 medium-sized daphnia, offered pairwise. Second, during the consumption of five series of 30 pairs, each consisting of a large and a small daphnia, it was determined how many items each fish caught of each prey size. As handling times were equal for both prey types, the larger prey size was more profitable. There was a significant correlation between relative competitive ability and mean proportion of large daphnia in the diet. In the last series the less successful competitiors caught a higher proportion of small prey than in the first series. Finally, each fish was given the choice between large and small daphnia in the absence of its competitor. The sticklebacks chose a diet similar to the one they had been allowed to select previously with competition. The previously more successful competitors concentrated on large daphnia, whereas the poorer competitors fed as generalists but not unselectively.

The fish probably learned the distance from which they had recently attacked familiar prey successfully. This ‘sure attack’ distance depends on the fish's competitive ability.