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© 1995 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Frequency-dependent selection on information-transfer strategies at breeding colonies: a simulation study

Zoltán Bartaa and Tibor Szépb

aBehavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, Kossuth University Debrecen, Pf 3, H-4010 Hungary bEcological Research Group, Hungarian Ornithological Society, Budapest, Kolt u. 21., H-1121 Hungary

ABSTRACT

Through computer simulations, we model three different food finding strategies: searcher, no information transfer, watcher, limited information transfer; follower, full information transfer. The aim of this article was to study how frequency-dependent selection affects the proportion of these strategies at a simulated colony under different patterns of food distribution. Furthermore, we determined how information transfer in a population with a mixed evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) modified the average foraging efficiency of an individual compared to that of an individual in a population with mutual information exchange. We found that the proportion of information gaining strategies increases as the food resources become more clumped. The improvement in foraging efficiency through the operation of an information center need not require mutuality in information exchange. On the basis of the presented study, at the ESS only a small percentage of colony members need discover food patches, yet the foraging efficiency may be high because of the operation of an information center.

Key words: colonial breeding, evolutionarily stable strategy, food patterns, foraging, information center, simulation. [Behav Ecol 6:308–310 (1995)].


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