The feedback between where we go and what we know — information shapes movement, but movement also impacts information acquisition

Abstract

What animals know about their environment is crucial for understanding observed patterns of movement and space-use, but the feedback between information acquisition and movement is rarely considered. Animals can inherit spatial information or obtain it with their senses, via their social environment, or from direct experience. On one hand, this information affects decisions about when, where and how to move. On the other hand, movement itself shapes the information animals acquire due to effects of habitat sampling, speed-accuracy tradeoffs, and cognitive limitations. We suggest that simultaneously considering how the information animals have about their environment affects their movements and how these movements, in turn, shape the information they acquire about their habitat will provide useful insights to the field of movement ecology.

What's your move? Movement as a link between personality and spatial dynamics in animal populations

“…); the level of information they obtain by sampling their environment (Dall et al . ; Spiegel & Crofoot ); or their tendency to cooperate with others. Consider the correlation between Fast explorers and a‐sociality as an example (Cote & Clobert ; Réale et al .…”

Short‐term prey field lability constrains individual specialisation in resource selection and foraging site fidelity in a marine predator

“…), shearwaters may gain information on prey locations using short‐term memory (Wakefield et al . ; Spiegel & Crofoot ) or public information (Weimerskirch et al . ; Spiegel & Crofoot ; Wells et al .…”

“…Interestingly, moderate ISRS for predictable anchovy patches revealed individual differences in bird ability to use available information (Fig. a; Spiegel & Crofoot ).…”

“…Individual specialisation in resource selection offers a selective advantage if individuals increase foraging efficiency by reducing search times, and this is related to their abilities to locate prey (Spiegel & Crofoot ) and to prey predictability (Phillips et al . ).…”

Social Information Links Individual Behavior to Population and Community Dynamics

“…Behavioral ecologists have long studied how social information shared among conspecifics can influence habitat selection and trophic interactions [6][7][8]. Animals often use social information to acquire resources (e.g., individuals or groups feeding in a location alert others to food) [2,[9][10][11][12][13][14] and to detect and avoid predators [1,2,6,[15][16][17].…”