What influences aggression and foraging activity in social birds? Measuring individual, group and environmental characteristics

Abstract

For specialised feeders, accessing food resources may impact on the performance of appetitive foraging and social behaviours at individual and population levels. Flamingos are excellent examples of social species with complex, species‐specific feeding strategies. As attainment of coloured plumage depends upon intake of dietary carotenoids, and as study of free‐ranging flamingos shows that foraging is disrupted by aggression from other birds, we investigated the effect of four feeding styles on foraging and aggression in captive lesser flamingos. We evaluated individual and group differences in foraging and aggression when birds consumed bespoke “flamingo pellet” from a bowl, an indoor feeding pool and an outdoor feeding section of their pool. Natural foraging (when birds were feeding irrespective of the presence of pellet) was recorded for comparison with artificial feeding styles. One‐minute long video footage of the birds' activities in these different locations, recorded between 2013 and 2016, was used to evaluate behaviour. Total number of seconds engaged in feeding and in aggression was recorded by continuous sampling. The colour of individual birds was scored from 1 (mainly white) to 4 (mainly pink). For natural filter feeding in the outdoor pool, maximum foraging was twice as much as bowl feeding, whilst aggression was less than half as much as other feeding methods. Overall, a more restricted feeding style significantly predicted aggression, along with increasing group size. Plumage colour significantly influenced aggression (brightest flamingos were more aggressive) and showed a non‐significant trend with foraging (brighter birds fed less than paler birds). No sex effect on feeding or aggression was found. This study enhances our understanding of husbandry and species' biology impacts on captive behaviour and provides data‐based evidence to improve food presentation. For flamingos, implementation of spacious outdoor feeding areas can encourage natural foraging patterns by reducing excess aggression and enhances welfare by improving flock social stability.

Exploring the Effect of the COVID-19 Zoo Closure Period on Flamingo Behaviour and Enclosure Use at Two Institutions

“…Nocturnal activity in flamingos is an important feature of their circadian rhythms with both captive [57] and wild flamingos [58][59][60] performing a significant proportion of their feeding at night and spending a large amount of time inactive diurnally [61]. Flamingos employ different patterns of foraging activity in response to prevailing environmental conditions across a 24 h period [62,63]. Should this research have continued for longer, biometric data on bird mass and plumage colour (as examples) could have been collected to determine any change in body and feather condition associated with changes to important behaviours, such as feeding.…”

“…Should this research have continued for longer, biometric data on bird mass and plumage colour (as examples) could have been collected to determine any change in body and feather condition associated with changes to important behaviours, such as feeding. As differences in flamingo plumage colour influence the time spent foraging at the individual and group level [63], collecting data on attributes of the birds themselves would further shed light on any long term visitor effects on behaviour and welfare.…”

Intra‐annual variation in activity budgets of a wild Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) population in Southern Brazil

“…2014; Rose et al . 2018; Rose & Croft 2018; Rose & Soole 2020). This research highlights the variation of behavioural displays during the months and indicates that climatic conditions and population variables can display an important role on to the behavioural dynamic of this species, serving as a starting point to investigate how environment and individuals interact through behaviour and indicating future perspectives for studies linking these variables and flamingos behaviours in Lagoa do Peixe National Park.…”

Influences of Rearing Environment on Behaviour and Welfare of Captive Chilean Flamingos: A Case Study on Foster-Reared and Parent-Reared Birds

“…Wild juvenile Chilean flamingo chicks feed less than adults due to aggressive displacement [84]. However, the abundance of food appropriately dispersed across the Chilean flamingo enclosure and freedom of movement would minimise aggression between birds [85]. This is seen in other wild flamingo flocks; for instance, the superabundant supplies of food at Kamfers Dam in South Africa reduced the effects of any lost feeding time by allowing lesser flamingos to spread out and avoid aggressive interactions [75].…”