STARLINGS (STURNUS-VULGARIS) EXPLOITING PATCHES - RESPONSE TO LONG-TERM CHANGES IN TRAVEL-TIME

In this paper we explore the way foraging animals integrate experience over time. The marginal value theorem shows that to maximize long-ter m gain rate, foragers should adjust patch exploitation to the average travel time for the habitat, and many experiments do find a positive r elationship between average patch exploitation and average interpatch travel time. This relationship implies that animals use experience to determine foraging tactics but, by itself, does not imply that anythin g but the most recent experience (say, the time taken to find the curr ent patch) has an effect on behavior. We directly tested the influence of events before the most recently experienced travel by examining ad justments in foraging behavior after stepwise changes between two homo geneous environments, each with a single travel distance. Using starli ngs (Sturnus vulgaris) in a closed-economy laboratory simulation of a patchy environment, we found that during periods of active foraging, t he average number of prey per patch visit is in close agreement with t hat predicted for rate maximization. After changes in travel time, bir ds took approximately six full cycles of travel and patch use before r eaching a new asymptotic behavior. The pattern of adjustment did not v ary with successive presentations of the environmental change. These r esults demonstrate that memory for more than one travel episode is inv olved in the foraging decisions of starlings. We relate our results to apparently conflicting data from previous experiments and to models o f memory and information processing.