Journal
BEHAVIOUR
Volume 138, Issue -, Pages 597-614Publisher
BRILL
DOI: 10.1163/156853901316924494
Keywords
interference; encounter rate; foraging rate; handling time; house sparrows; seed density; social vigilance; aggression
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Interference models of the ideal free distribution (IFD) assume competition among foraging animals causes intake rates to decline with increasing competitor density and that the strength of the decline influences forager distributions among food patches. However, the resulting distributions of animals may depend on which components of foraging success contribute to interference. We examined the effect of group size (1-13 birds) on the prey encounter rates, handling times, and foraging rates of house sparrows, Passer domesticus, feeding at three seed densities in a suburban backyard. House sparrows did not experience interference during search. Interference arose primarily front foraging time lost handling seeds. Foraging rates decreased with increasing seed density as a consequence of increased handling times. Also, birds experiencing significant increases in handling time with group size suffered most from interference. Our results suggest that animals adjust handling time to avoid costly aggressive interactions, indicating that handling time may be an important component of interference in some foraging systems. Future studies estimating interference should try to identify which components of foraging contribute to interference, paying particular attention to handling times for species that monitor and avoid competitors.
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