Intermittent Food Absence Motivates Reallocation of Locomotion and Feeding in Spotted Munia (Lonchura punctulata)

Abstract

Background: Daily feeding and locomotion are interrelated behaviours. The time spent in feeding and rate of food intake depends on food availability. In low food condition, the birds would show intense movement (locomotion) for a longer time throughout the day however during abundant food supply they may chose higher activity and food intake in the morning and evening only. In the present study we hypothesized that in Spotted Munia (Lonchura punctulata), intermittent food availability during day would reallocate their interrelated behaviors, the feeding (food intake) and locomotor activity patterns.Methods: Two groups of birds (N = 6 each) were kept individually in activity cages under 12L:12D. Group 1 (Control; C) had ad libitum food but group 2 (Treatment; T) had food for 6 hours only (2 h presence followed by 2 h absence; 2P:2A) during 12 hour light period. In the first week, group 2 received food with ‘lights on’ (TI; ZT 0–2, 4–6 and 8–10; where ZT 0= zeitgeber time 0, time of lights ON). In the following week, the food was given 2 hours after ‘lights on’ (TII; ZT 2–4, 6–8, 10–12). The food intake and locomotor activity under each condition were observed.Results: The results showed that locomotor activity was induced during food deprivation and suppressed during food availability. Also the food deprivation led to increased food intake.Conclusion: Our results suggest that intermittent food availability/deprivation reallocates the locomotor activity and food intake in Spotted Munia.

Consistency in supplemental food availability affects the space use of wintering birds

“…Alternatively, the higher counts of chickadees when food was available at the pulsed feeders may not have been a result of more chickadees using the feeders, but instead the chickadees having a higher probability of detection due to their increased rate of feeder visitation and caching seeds nearby. Previous work has found that the birds with unpredictable access to food forage more actively and cache more seeds compared to birds with constant access (Pravosudov and Grubb 1997;Srivastava et al 2015 but see Karpouzos et al 2005). Barnea and Nottebohm (1995) observed flocks of black-capped chickadees foraging at feeders and found that individuals stored the majority of seeds within 15 m of the feeder.…”

“…Compared to animals with constant food access, animals with access to inconsistent or unpredictable food may be more motivated to forage across wider spaces and do so more actively (Anselme et al 2017;Anselme and Güntürkün 2019) . In an aviary experiment with spotted munia (Lonchura punctulata), individuals with intermittent access to food increased their activity levels and food intake rate when food was available compared to the activity levels and food intake rate of birds with constant access to food (Srivastava et al 2015). Similarly, as food availability became highly variable, marsh tits (Poecile palustris) increased their foraging effort compared to when food availability was more constant (Hurly 1992).…”

Effortful foraging activity for uncertain food in pigeons

“…The evidence that pigeons work harder in an uncertain environment is in line with findings collected by means of various experimental procedures. Mammals and birds increase their response rates to a cue randomly followed by food or nothing (Anselme et al, 2013;Bateson et al, 2021;Crawford et al, 1985;Gottlieb, 2004;Rauwolf et al, 2021;Robinson et al, 2019) or in situations of unpredictable food shortage (Dickins & Schalz, 2020;Srivastava et al, 2015), compared to their safer counterparts. Also, the responses to a low probability of food are more variable in their expression than when food probability is higher (Blaisdell et al, 2016).…”