The emergence of collective behavior from local interactions is a widespread phenomenon in social groups. Previous models of collective behavior have largely overlooked the impact of variation among individuals within the group on collective dynamics...
Mediterranean forest rangelands offer an important feed source for goats. Concerns about grazing strategies and management schemes in order to ensure the rangeland sustainability of Southern Mediterranean forest have revived interest in the foraging...
Pastoral activities are an essential part of the cultural and ecological landscape of Central Italy. This traditional practice supports local economies, maintains biodiversity, and contributes to the sustainable use of natural resources. Understandin...
This article presents a macroscopic swarm foraging behavior obtained using deep reinforcement learning. The selected behavior is a complex task in which a group of simple agents must be directed towards an object to move it to a target position witho...
Ecosystems are vulnerable to large areas of rocky desertification, which results in patchy soils and stone-inlaid soils. Karst landforms are typically characterized by heterogeneous phosphorus (P) distributions in soils at high calcium (Ca), but root...
Food deprivation is a common stress in crustaceans that can affect their behavior and physiology. In this study, a video recording analysis system was used to compare the predation rate and behavior of the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, for...
Climate change is a major environmental concern and is directly related to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. The increase in concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), not only affects plant growth and development, but also...
The provision of forage to pre-weaned calves has been continuously researched and discussed by scientists, though results associated with calf growth and performance have remained inconsistent. Multiple factors, including forage type, intake level, p...
This paper proposes a novel intelligent approach to swarm robotics, drawing inspiration from the collective foraging behavior exhibited by fish schools. A bio-inspired neural network (BINN) and a self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm are used to enable...
Wildfires cause profound challenges for animals to overcome due to their reliance on vegetation. This study addresses the impact of three levels of forest burn severity (unburned, low, and high burn severity) on the foraging behavior of small mammals...
We here provide the first comprehensive analysis and discussion on prey consumed by the European cave salamanders of the genus Speleomantes. Our study stems from the need to shed light on the still unknown foraging behavior adopted by Speleomantes ca...
Advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology have dramatically enhanced the ability to track and study distributions of free-ranging livestock. Understanding factors controlling the distribution of free-ranging livestock requires the abilit...
Bee pollination is an indispensable part of agricultural production and a crucial factor in maintaining ecosystem balance and biodiversity. Understanding foraging behavior and pollination effects is essential for the management of bee pollination. Ov...
Since the occurrence of COVID-19 and food price inflation, alternative forms of food procurement increased in popularity. The present study is dedicated to urban foraging and aims to explore key factors driving food foraging behavior in the U.S. Two...
The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, is a severe pest with agricultural, ecological, and medical significance. The baiting treatment is one of the main methods to control S. invicta. However, few studies have evaluated the acceptance...
This study classified cows’ foraging behaviors using machine learning (ML) models evaluated through random test split (RTS) and cross-validation (CV) data partition methods. Models included Perceptron, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machin...
The Shannon Estuary in Ireland is home to a resident population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. It is an important industrial area, with numerous deep-wa...
We conducted a laboratory study to determine the impact of ground-applied termiticides on the above-ground foraging behavior of Coptotermes formosanus. Two concentrations (1 and 10 ppm) each of three termiticides, viz. fipronil, imidacloprid and chlo...
Termites are eusocial insects that live in organized colonies consisting of reproductives, workers, and soldiers. Soldiers are specialized for defense but are expensive to maintain, as they are incapable of husbandry and must be fed and groomed by wo...
Effective management of captive M. fascicularis (long-tailed macaques) is crucial for maintaining high-quality research models, necessitating strategies to promote their welfare. This study evaluated the impact of a foraging enrichment device, the &l...
Background: During social foraging, individuals typically adopt one of two mutually exclusive strategies: (1) producing, which involves searching for, discovering, and acquiring resources, or (2) scrounging, which entails exploiting resources previou...
Pollination and pollinators are major keys in the working of almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Bumblebees are the key pollinators belonging to the family Apidae. Their large and fuzzy body makes them more efficient pollinators than any other bee. Be...
Polistine wasps collect nectar for their energetic demand and for the provision of the brood. They are mainly ectothermic during different behavioral tasks. We investigated the body temperature of two species living in differing habitats and climate...
Mosquitoes are the most important vector of arboviruses; thus, controlling mosquito population is a key point for controlling these diseases. Two major factors that influence mosquito population size are the availability of blood hosts and suitable o...
The study of flower visitor behavior and pollen transport dynamics within and between plants can be of great importance, especially for threatened or rare plant species. In this work, we aim to assess the flower visitor assemblage of the Madeiran end...
The ecological drivers of wildlife crop-foraging behavior—whether as a compensatory response to natural resource scarcity or as opportunistic exploitation of anthropogenic food sources—remain poorly understood in human–wildlife conf...
Wetlands are disappearing or degrading at an unprecedented rate due to the increase in human encroachment and disturbance, eventually leading to habitat loss for waterbirds, which is the primary cause of the decline in the Hooded Crane (Grus monacha)...
Polymorphic traits may evolve in many species of birds, often driven by multiple environmental factors. It is hypothesized that polymorphic traits in herons could be influenced by feeding behavior. Most of the Western Reef Herons (Egretta egularis) (...
Harbor porpoises are typically seen in small groups of 1–3 individuals, with aggregations of 20+ individuals treated as rare events. Since the 1990s, the harbor porpoise population in the Salish Sea has seen a significant recovery, and an incre...
Nosema disease is a major disease of honey bees caused by two species of microsporidia, Nosema apis and N. ceranae. Current control involves using antibiotics, which is undesirable because of possible antibiotic resistance and contamination. In this...
Celonites kozlovi Kostylev, 1935, and C. sibiricus Gusenleitner, 2007, coexist in semi-deserts of the Altai Mountains. The trophic relationships of these pollen wasp species to flowers are largely unknown. We observed the flower visits and behav...
Essential oils have been utilized in the health, learning/memory, and agricultural fields, but not much is known about the biological activity of their individual components. Terpinyl acetate is a p-menthane monoterpenoid commonly found in cardamom,...
In vitro rearing of honeybee larvae is an established method that enables exact control and monitoring of developmental factors and allows controlled application of pesticides or pathogens. However, only a few studies have investigated how the rearin...
Environmental enrichment is essential for promoting species-specific behaviors and enhancing the welfare of zoo-housed animals. This study examined the behavioral responses of two juvenile male binturongs (Arctictis binturong) at the Minnesota Zoo to...
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) are opportunistic foragers with global distributions that utilize diverse feeding tactics based on environmental factors, habitat features, prey behavior, group dynamics, and genetics. We describe a unique foraging...
Foraging behavior in hens is an important indicator of animal welfare. It involves both the search for food and exploration of the environment, which provides necessary enrichment. In addition, it has been inversely linked to damaging behaviors such...
Shorebirds commonly exhibit cathemeral activity and commonly forage throughout a 24 h period. Conservation of endangered shorebirds should then extend to protection at night, yet little data exists on overall time budgets of such species at night. Th...
To monitor adrenocortical activity in zoo-housed species, we propose using physiological and behavioral indicators that are non-invasive and practical to implement. We explore this model in the southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus; arm...
Current management paradigms suggest deferring grazing rangeland for two years post-fire to avoid additional stress on native grass species, but there is little research supporting these recommendations. This study was conducted within and adjacent t...
As a habitat for waterbirds, wetlands are key to their survival, reproduction and development. Waterbirds usually prefer breeding, wintering and resting in fixed locations. Siberian cranes (Grus leucogeranus), which are highly dependent on wetlands,...
Optimization algorithms are search methods where the goal is to find an optimal solution to a problem, in order to satisfy one or more objective functions, possibly subject to a set of constraints. Studies of social animals and social insects have re...
Small stalls and regulated feedings restrict horses’ natural foraging and locomotion, increasing risks to welfare. Environmental enrichment may promote more naturalistic behavioral time budgets, yet little is known about how enrichment type or...
We studied beavers’ dietary preferences and the role of several factors (such as plant species, size and anthropopression level) that affect the beavers’ foraging in northern Poland. Woody plants along the river were measured and classifi...
The disposable soma theory posits that organisms allocate limited resources between reproduction, maintenance, and growth, resulting in trade-offs, particularly as they age. In this study, we examined age-related reproductive senescence in Megachile ...
Acoustic monitoring facilitates the detailed study of herbivore grazing by generating a timeline of sound bursts associated with jaw movements (JMs) that perform bite or chew actions. The unclassified stream of JM events was used here in an observati...
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and behavioral inhibition (BI) are personality traits associated with avoidance of the unfamiliar. Both are linked to anxiety and other disorders. However, most research on personality has relied on self-report, which...
Brassica forage may be included in pigs’ diet as a dietary fiber ingredient to reduce feeding costs, benefit gut health, immune system, reproductive traits, and welfare. However, they contain antinutritional factors which may affect feeding beh...
Several insect species visit the flowers of a plant to obtain floral rewards in the form of pollen and/or nectar. In return, we would anticipate that those visitors would contribute to the reproductive success of the plant. Do these visitors contribu...
Traditionally, foraging behavior has been explained as the response to a trade-off between energetic gain from feeding resources and potential costs from concomitant risks. However, an increasing number of studies has shown that this view fails to ex...
Environmental enrichment is key for improving the broiler welfare in intensive production systems. This study lasted for 43 days and evaluated the effects of physical and social enrichment on broiler welfare. A total of 96 one-day-old male broilers w...
of 12