Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability
To grow, survive and reproduce under anthropogenic-induced changes, individuals must respond quickly and favourably to the surrounding environment. A species that feeds on a wide variety of prey types (i.e. generalist diet) may be comprised of generalist individuals, specialist individuals that feed...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8528284 2023-05-15T17:22:36+02:00 Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability Maynard, Laurie D. Gulka, Julia Jenkins, Edward Davoren, Gail K. 2021-10-20 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528284/ https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528284/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 © 2021 Maynard et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY PLoS One Research Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 2021-10-24T00:47:16Z To grow, survive and reproduce under anthropogenic-induced changes, individuals must respond quickly and favourably to the surrounding environment. A species that feeds on a wide variety of prey types (i.e. generalist diet) may be comprised of generalist individuals, specialist individuals that feed on different prey types, or a combination of the two. If individuals within a population respond differently to an environmental change, population-level responses may not be detectable. By tracking foraging movements of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus), a generalist species, we compared group-level and individual-level responses to an increase in prey biomass (capelin; Mallotus villosus) during the breeding season in coastal Newfoundland, Canada. As hypothesized, shifts in prey availability resulted in significantly different individual responses in foraging behaviour and space use, which was not detectable when data from individuals were combined. Some individuals maintained similar foraging areas, foraging trip characteristics (e.g., trip length, duration) and habitat use with increased capelin availability, while others shifted foraging areas and habitats resulting in either increased or decreased trip characteristics. We show that individual specialization can be non-contextual in some gulls, whereby these individuals continuously use the same feeding strategy despite significant change in prey availability conditions. Findings also indicate high response diversity among individuals to shifting prey conditions that a population- or group-level study would not have detected, emphasizing the importance of examining individual-level strategies for future diet and foraging studies on generalist species. Text Newfoundland PubMed Central (PMC) Canada PLOS ONE 16 10 e0252561 |
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Research Article Maynard, Laurie D. Gulka, Julia Jenkins, Edward Davoren, Gail K. Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
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To grow, survive and reproduce under anthropogenic-induced changes, individuals must respond quickly and favourably to the surrounding environment. A species that feeds on a wide variety of prey types (i.e. generalist diet) may be comprised of generalist individuals, specialist individuals that feed on different prey types, or a combination of the two. If individuals within a population respond differently to an environmental change, population-level responses may not be detectable. By tracking foraging movements of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus), a generalist species, we compared group-level and individual-level responses to an increase in prey biomass (capelin; Mallotus villosus) during the breeding season in coastal Newfoundland, Canada. As hypothesized, shifts in prey availability resulted in significantly different individual responses in foraging behaviour and space use, which was not detectable when data from individuals were combined. Some individuals maintained similar foraging areas, foraging trip characteristics (e.g., trip length, duration) and habitat use with increased capelin availability, while others shifted foraging areas and habitats resulting in either increased or decreased trip characteristics. We show that individual specialization can be non-contextual in some gulls, whereby these individuals continuously use the same feeding strategy despite significant change in prey availability conditions. Findings also indicate high response diversity among individuals to shifting prey conditions that a population- or group-level study would not have detected, emphasizing the importance of examining individual-level strategies for future diet and foraging studies on generalist species. |
format |
Text |
author |
Maynard, Laurie D. Gulka, Julia Jenkins, Edward Davoren, Gail K. |
author_facet |
Maynard, Laurie D. Gulka, Julia Jenkins, Edward Davoren, Gail K. |
author_sort |
Maynard, Laurie D. |
title |
Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
title_short |
Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
title_full |
Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
title_fullStr |
Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
title_full_unstemmed |
Different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
title_sort |
different individual-level responses of great black-backed gulls (larus marinus) to shifting local prey availability |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528284/ https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 |
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Canada |
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Canada |
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Newfoundland |
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Newfoundland |
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PLoS One |
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528284/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 |
op_rights |
© 2021 Maynard et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252561 |
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PLOS ONE |
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