Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
76
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
76 results for “social foraging”
Social partners and temperature jointly affect morning foraging activity of small birds in winter
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Gregariousness, foraging effort, and social interactions in lactating bonobos and chimpanzees
<p>Fission-fusion dynamics have evolved in a broad range of animal taxa and are thought to allow individuals to mitigate feeding competition. While this is the principal benefit of fission-fusion, few studies have evaluated its costs. We compared gregariousness, foraging budgets, and social budgets between lactating bonobos and chimpanzees from wild populations to evaluate such costs. Both species exhibit fission-fusion dynamics, but chimpanzees, particularly in East African populations, appear to experience higher feeding competition than bonobos. We expected lactating chimpanzees to be less gregarious than lactating bonobos; reduced gregariousness should allow lactating chimpanzees to mitigate costs of higher feeding competition without requiring more foraging effort. However, we expected the reduced gregariousness of lactating chimpanzees to limit their time available for affiliative social interactions. Using long-term data from LuiKotale bonobos and Gombe chimpanzees, we found that lactating chimpanzees were indeed less gregarious than lactating bonobos while feeding and travel time did not differ between species. Contrary to our predictions, lactating females did not differ in social interaction time, and lactating chimpanzees spent proportionately more time interacting with individuals other than their immature offspring. Our results indicate that lactating chimpanzees can maintain social budgets comparable to lactating bonobos despite reduced gregariousness and without incurring additional foraging costs. We discuss potential explanations for why lactating bonobos are more gregarious.</p>
Data from: Social foraging extends associative odor-food memory expression in an automated learning assay for Drosophila melanogaster
<p>Animals socially interact during foraging and share information about the quality and location of food sources. The mechanisms of social information transfer during foraging have been mostly studied at the behavioral level, and its underlying neural mechanisms are largely unknown. Fruit flies have become a model for studying the neural bases of social information transfer, because they provide a large genetic toolbox to monitor and manipulate neuronal activity, and they show a rich repertoire of social behaviors. Fruit flies aggregate, they use social information for choosing a suitable mating partner and oviposition site, and they show better aversive learning when in groups. However, the effects of social interactions on associative odor–food learning have not yet been investigated. Here, we present an automated learning and memory assay for walking flies that allows the study of the effect of group size on social interactions and on the formation and expression of associative odor–food memories. We found that both inter-fly attraction and the duration of odor–food memory expression increase with group size. This study opens up opportunities to investigate how social interactions during foraging are relayed in the neural circuitry of learning and memory expression.</p>
Data from: Exploring foraging decisions in a social primate using discrete choice models
There is a growing appreciation of the multiple social and nonsocial factors influencing the foraging behavior of social animals, but little understanding of how these factors depend on habitat characteristics or individual traits. This partly reflects the difficulties inherent in using conventional statistical techniques to analyze multi-factor, multi-context foraging decisions. Discrete choice models provide a way to do so, and we demonstrate this by using them to investigate patch preference in a wild population of social foragers (chacma baboons, Papio ursinus). Data were collected from 29 adults across two social groups encompassing 683 foraging decisions over a six-month period, and the results interpreted using an information theoretic approach. Baboon foraging decisions were influenced by multiple nonsocial and social factors, and were often contingent on the characteristics of the habitat or individual. Differences in decision-making between habitats were consistent with changes in interference competition costs but not changes in social foraging benefits. Individual differences in decision-making were suggestive of a trade-off between dominance rank and social capital. Our findings emphasize that taking a multi-factor, multi-context approach is important to fully understand animal decision-making. We also demonstrate how discrete choice models can be used to achieve this.
Social foraging and the associated benefits of group-living in Cliff Swallows decrease over 40 years
<p>Animals that feed socially can sometimes better locate prey, often by transferring information about food that is patchy, dense, and temporally and spatially unpredictable. Information transfer is a potential benefit of living in breeding colonies where unsuccessful foragers can more readily locate successful ones and thereby improve feeding efficiency. Most studies on social foraging have been short-term, and how long-term environmental change affects both foraging strategies and the associated benefits of coloniality is generally unknown. In the colonial Cliff Swallow (<em>Petrochelidon</em> <em>pyrrhonota</em>), we examined how social foraging, information transfer, and feeding ecology changed over a 40-year period in western Nebraska. Relative to the 1980's, Cliff Swallows in 2016–2022 were more likely to forage solitarily or in smaller groups, spent less time foraging, were more successful as solitaries, fed in more variable locations, and engaged less in information transfer at the colony site. The total mass of insects brought back to nestlings per parental visit declined over the study. The diversity of insect families captured increased over time, and some insect taxa dropped out of the diet, although the three most common insect families remained the same among the decades. Nestling Cliff Swallow body mass at 10 days of age and the number of nestlings surviving per nest declined more sharply with colony size in 2015–2022 than in 1984–1991 at sites where the confounding effects of ectoparasites were removed. Adult body mass during provisioning of nestlings was lower in more recent years, but the change did not vary with colony size. The reason(s) for the reduction in social foraging and information transfer over time are unclear, but the consequence is that colonial nesting may no longer offer the same fitness advantages for Cliff Swallows as in the 1980's. The results illustrate flexibility of foraging behavior and dynamic shifts in the potential selective pressures for group-living.</p>
Foraging networks and social tolerance in a cooperatively breeding primate (Callithrix jacchus)
<p>Within-group competition over food resources can be a major cost of social living. In the wild, foragers are confronted with social (e.g. hierarchical rank) and ecological (e.g. food availability and distribution) challenges that affect their foraging decisions and feeding success. Exhibiting prosocial behaviors, such as tolerance at feeding sites, can benefit group members by developing affiliative social relationships, enhancing access to resources and maximizing fitness. We examined social tolerance at feeding sites in Callithrix jacchus, a cooperatively breeding primate species. We investigated the set of social (rank, age, sex) and ecological (food availability) factors that influence the structure and dynamics of within-group foraging association networks. We designed and conducted an experimental field study of four wild groups of common marmosets in which we controlled food distribution (concentrated or scattered) and productivity (high, medium, or low food rewards). Then, we used social network analyses to assess the number and strength of foraging associations among group members, their effects on individual food consumption, and whether recent experiences with conspecifics during foraging affected subsequent associations. Overall, common marmoset foraging association networks were cohesive, as group members jointly occupied feeding sites. The number and strength of associations varied depending on the ecological context. Associations were stronger during conditions in which food was concentrated at a single site. Individuals obtained greater access to food resources when sharing a feeding site with conspecifics, but once a food item was obtained, the forager moved to a nearby tree and consumed it away from others. Additionally, the strength of previous foraging associations and subsequent levels of social tolerance at feeding sites were positively related, a relationship compatible with the ability of memorizing associations over time and recalling the information in future decision-making. In sum, marmosets adjusted their partner choices and the strength of foraging associations in response to food availability. They exhibited increased social tolerance at feeding sites during conditions in which opportunities for contest competition were expected to be greatest. These cooperative breeding primates appear to mutually benefit by maintaining cohesive and strong affiliative relationships, and by increasing opportunities for coordinated behavior and offspring survival.</p>
The benefits and costs of social foraging in velvet worms
<p>Data from: Herringe et al. (2021) The benefits and costs of social foraging in velvet worms.</p>
Data from: Resource heterogeneity but not inbreeding affects growth and grouping behaviour in socially foraging juvenile cichlid fish
<p>1. Spatial food distribution determines resource profitability, defensibility and encounter rate of foragers. Clumped food distribution can promote aggressiveness and resource monopolisation, in turn increasing within-group variation in food intake and growth. However, the effects of food distribution may depend on foraging strategies. Little is known about the impact of spatial food heterogeneity on growth and grouping behaviour in social foragers in the absence of monopolisation.</p> <p>2. Social foraging is present in many fishes, particularly at early juvenile life stages when fish are especially sensitive to environmental variation. Here, a heterogeneous food distribution may impair foraging success and growth and juveniles may increase sociability to attain social information about food resources.</p> <p>3. We examined the impact of the spatial distribution of food as well as inbreeding on growth and social behaviour in juveniles of the cichlid fish <i>Pelvicachromis pulcher. </i>Inbred individuals often show poorer performance than outbred individuals (inbreeding depression), but inbreeding effects can be environment-dependent. In the experiment, in- and outbred fish were reared in a split-clutch design either under homogeneously distributed or spatially clumped food conditions for eight weeks starting one week after juveniles could actively feed. We documented growth and performed a shoaling assay and a sociality test (choice between a large vs. a small shoal) after six weeks.</p> <p>4. Spatial food distribution did not affect within-group body length variation, but individuals reared under clumped food conditions were smaller. Shoals of the different feeding conditions differed in social behaviour. Shoals of the clumped treatment group showed higher variation in inter-individual distances compared to shoals of the homogeneous treatment group. Furthermore, focal fish of the clumped treatment adjusted their association preference to the position of the groups' largest individual. We did not find significant inbreeding or environment-dependent inbreeding effects regarding growth or social behaviour.</p> <p>5. Our study suggests that a clumped food distribution can impede localisation of food resources and thus growth in juvenile social foragers. Accordingly, in heterogeneous environments, the use of social information may be highly relevant to increase individuals' foraging success potentially explaining orientation on successful foragers, i.e. large individuals. Inter-individual variation in juvenile social behaviour may precede variation in food monopolisation capability and in growth emerging at later life stages.</p>
Data from: Homophily around specialized foraging underlies dolphin social preferences
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Specialist foragers in forest bee communities are small, social or emerge early
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Resource heterogeneity but not inbreeding affects growth and grouping behaviour in socially foraging juvenile cichlid fish
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Social foraging and the associated benefits of group-living in Cliff Swallows decrease over 40 years
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Social foraging extends associative odor-food memory expression in an automated learning assay for Drosophila melanogaster
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Social and spatial effects on genetic variation between foraging flocks in a wild bird population
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Foraging networks and social tolerance in a cooperatively breeding primate (Callithrix jacchus)
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Exploring foraging decisions in a social primate using discrete choice models
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Social and nutritional factors shape larval aggregation, foraging, and body mass in a polyphagous fly
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Gregariousness, foraging effort, and social interactions in lactating bonobos and chimpanzees
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Social foragers adopt a riskier foraging mode in the centre of their groups
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: The price of associating with breeders in the cooperatively breeding chestnut-crowned babbler: foraging constraints, survival and sociality
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.