Post-foraging in-colony behaviour of a central-place foraging seabird

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna, Grissot, Antoine, Devogel, Marion, Altmeyer, Lauraleen, Fujisaki, Tessa, Jakubas, Dariusz, Kidawa, Dorota, Karnovsky, Nina
• Other Authors: University of Gdańsk (UG), UMS 3343 (OSU), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Pomona College, National Science Centre (NCN) 2017/25/B/NZ8/01417, 2017/26/D/NZ8/00005
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Alle alle; little auk
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03780762; https://hal.science/hal-03780762/document; https://hal.science/hal-03780762/file/s41598-022-17307-8.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17307-8

International audience Studies on time allocation of various activities are crucial to understand which behavioural strategy is the most profitable in a given context, and so why animals behave in a particular way. Such investigations usually focus on a time window when the studied activity is performed, often neglecting how the time devoted to focal activity affects time allocation to following-up behaviours, while that may have its own fitness consequences. In this study, we examined time allocation into three post-foraging activities (entering the nest with food, nest attendance, and colony attendance) in a small seabird species, the little auk (Alle alle). Since little auks alternate foraging trips of different duration (short and long) and purpose (offspring feeding and primarily self-feeding, respectively) we expected that duration of the following up in-colony activities would also vary, being longer after a long absence in the colony (because of greater need of reassessment of the current predation pressure and social interactions in the colony, and re-establishing the bond with the offspring and/or partner and/or neighbours after longer absence). We found that it was not always the case, as time allocation of the post-foraging in-colony activities was primarily year- and sex-specific. It highlights the need to consider year and sex effects in studies of behavioural ecology, as not doing so may lead to spurious conclusions. Interestingly, and despite a great inter-individual variation in time allocation in the post-foraging in-colony activities, little auk individuals were quite repeatable in their behavioural performance, which suggests these activities may reflect birds behavioural profile. Overall, post-foraging in-colony activity of the little auk, although not much dependent on duration/type of the preceding foraging flights, varies with respect to year and sex, and as such may be a proxy of behavioural plasticity of the population.