Understanding the factors that influence the foraging behavior and perception of habitat quality by animals has long been the focus in ecology. Due to the direct effect resource acquisition has on an individual’s fitness and species’ survival, predation risk is considered widely to be a major driver of foraging decision. The objectives of this study were to investigate how predation risk is perceived by granivorous bird species with respect to different habitat and microhabitat types, time of day and food types in Amurum Forest Reserve, Nigeria, with a view to direct future conservation planning. For 3 months, we conducted field experiments to measure giving-up densities (GUD, the amount of food left behind in artificial patches after birds cease to forage in it) and how it differs with habitat types, microhabitats, times of day, and food types. General linear mixed-effect models (GLMMs) were fitted to investigate the differences in GUD with respect to the aforementioned variables. Model selection was done based on the Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC). There was no significant difference in GUDs across habitats. However, there was a significant difference in GUDs between microhabitats. Higher food remnants were recorded in the open than in cover microhabitats, as birds exploited food patches in the cover more. Time of day influenced foraging behavior in the birds. They foraged more in the morning than afternoon across all three habitats except for the gallery forest where birds foraged less in the morning. Higher GUDs were recorded in open than cover microhabitats both in the morning and the afternoon. Birds had a preference for rice, millet, and groundnut respectively. The differences in GUDs were very indicative of differences in foraging behavior and perception of resource availability in response to perceived predation risk. Therefore, this study suggests that the understanding of foraging decisions can be a veritable method for assessing habitat quality as perceived by animals.

中文翻译：

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捕食的风险：尼日利亚森林保护区中驱动栖息地质量感知和肉食鸟类觅食行为的关键力量

长期以来，了解影响动物觅食行为和对栖息地质量的感知的因素一直是生态学的重点。由于资源获取直接影响个体的适应能力和物种的生存，因此掠食风险被广泛认为是觅食决策的主要驱动力。这项研究的目的是调查在尼日利亚阿穆鲁姆森林保护区中食肉鸟类对不同栖息地和微生境类型，一天中的时间和食物类型的捕食风险，以指导未来的保护规划。在3个月的时间里，我们进行了野外实验，以测量放弃密度（GUD，即鸟类停止觅食后留在人工斑块中的食物量）及其与生境类型，微生境，一天中的时间和食物的区别类型。拟合了一般线性混合效应模型（GLMM），以研究相对于上​​述变量的GUD差异。根据Akaike的信息标准（AIC）进行模型选择。不同生境之间的GUD没有显着差异。但是，微生境之间的GUD存在显着差异。公开记录的食物残留量高于表层微生境，因为鸟类更多地利用表层的食物。一天中的时间影响了鸟类的觅食行为。他们在所有三个栖息地的早晨都比下午觅食更多，除了长廊森林以外，早上鸟食更少。在早晨和下午，开放的记录GUD比覆盖的微生境更高。鸟类分别偏爱大米，小米和花生。GUD的差异非常说明了觅食行为和对感知掠食风险的反应对资源可用性的感知的差异。因此，这项研究表明，对觅食决策的理解可能是一种评估动物感知的栖息地质量的真实方法。