Wakefield, ED,Bodey, TW,Bearhop, S,Blackburn, J,Colhoun, K,Davies, R,Dwyer, RG,Green, JA,Gremillet, D,Jackson, AL,Jessopp, MJ,Kane, A,Langston, RHW,Lescroel, A,Murray, S,Le Nuz, M,Patrick, SC,Peron, C,Soanes, LM,Wanless, S,Votier, SC,Hamer, KC

2013

July

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Space Partitioning Without Territoriality in Gannets

Validated

Altmetric: 55 ()

INTRA-SPECIFIC COMPETITION FORAGING AREAS PUBLIC INFORMATION GPS TRACKING SEABIRDS BEHAVIOR FOOD COLONIES NEIGHBORS EVOLUTION

341

68

70

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.

10.1126/science.1236077