GROUP FORAGING IN PATCHY ENVIRONMENTS - THE IMPORTANCE OF COARSE LEVEL LOCAL ENHANCEMENT

Local enhancement is one way individuals may realize foraging advantages from grouping. A distinction between fine-level and coarse-level local enhancement is made, the latter often being neglected in theoretical research on group foraging. In the former case, an individual has a higher feeding rate as a member of a group because individuals copy other group members' foraging, whereas in the latter, groups simply attract other individuals to patches where food is particularly abundant and copying does not occur within the group. Coarse-level local enhancement may decrease the time needed to find profitable feeding patches in spatially and temporally variable environments. A review of the empirical literature indicated that coarse-level local enhancement is typical in bird species foraging in open habitats and in large groups with relatively little competition between group members whereas the opposite attributes fit the species for which fine-level local enhancement had been documented. Furthermore, species in which coarse-level local enhancement prevails usually forage in temporary groups. However, coarse-level and fine-level local enhancement are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but which one is more important in a particular case may be habitat-dependent.