Authors
Ewan D Wakefield, Thomas W Bodey, Stuart Bearhop, Jez Blackburn, Kendrew Colhoun, Rachel Davies, Ross G Dwyer, Jonathan A Green, David Grémillet, Andrew L Jackson, Mark J Jessopp, Adam Kane, Rowena HW Langston, Amélie Lescroël, Stuart Murray, Mélanie Le Nuz, Samantha C Patrick, Clara Péron, Louise M Soanes, Sarah Wanless, Stephen C Votier, Keith C Hamer
Publication date
2013/7/5
Journal
Science
Volume
341
Issue
6141
Pages
68-70
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Description
Colonial breeding is widespread among animals. Some, such as eusocial insects, may use agonistic behavior to partition available foraging habitat into mutually exclusive territories; others, such as breeding seabirds, do not. We found that northern gannets, satellite-tracked from 12 neighboring colonies, nonetheless forage in largely mutually exclusive areas and that these colony-specific home ranges are determined by density-dependent competition. This segregation may be enhanced by individual-level public information transfer, leading to cultural evolution and divergence among colonies.
Scholar articles
ED Wakefield, TW Bodey, S Bearhop, J Blackburn… - Science, 2013