DECISION-MAKING IN GROUP FORAGERS WITH INCOMPLETE INFORMATION: TEST OF INDIVIDUAL-BASED MODEL IN GEESE

One important challenge of spatial ecology is to generate models linking individual behavior to population-level phenomena. Although animals often face great uncertainty regarding foraging patch quality, earlier models explaining the aggregation of animals have rarely specified how stable outcomes are achieved through individual decisions, especially under realistic assumptions for incompletely informed foragers. We developed a new foraging model that assumed a realistic decision-making rule for incompletely informed group foragers, and we tested its performance against existing models with different assumptions by comparing how well they reproduce the patterns observed in foraging White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons). The assumptions in each of the four compared models were: (1) incompletely informed foraging with benefits of group foraging, which uses the expected gain rates for making decisions on diet choice, patch departure, and flock joining; (2) incompletely informed foraging without benefits of g...

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