Human activities generate food attracting many animals worldwide, causing major conservation issues. The spatio-temporal predictability of anthropogenic resources could reduce search costs for animals and mediate their attractiveness. We investigated this through GPS tracking in breeding black-browed albatrosses attracted to fishing boats. We tested for answers to the following questions. (i) Can future boat locations be anticipated from cues available to birds? (ii) Are birds able to appropriately use these cues to increase encounters? (iii) How frequently do birds use these cues? Boats were spatially persistent: birds searching in the direction where they previously attended boats would encounter twice as many boats compared with following a random direction strategy. A large proportion of birds did not use this cue: across pairs of consecutive trips (n = 85), 51% of birds switched their foraging direction irrespective of previous boat encounters. Still, 15 birds (27%) were observed to closely approach (approx. 0.1–1 km) where they previously attended a boat while boats were no longer there. This is less than the distance expected by chance (approx. 10–100 km), based on permutation control procedures accounting for individual-specific spatial consistency, suggesting individuals could memorize where they encountered boats across consecutive trips. We conclude albatrosses were able to exploit predictive cues from recent boat encounters but most favoured alternative resources.

中文翻译：

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信天翁可以记住可预测的渔船的位置，但喜欢自然觅食

人类活动产生的食物吸引了世界各地的许多动物，从而引发了重大的保护问题。人为资源的时空可预测性可以降低动物的搜索成本并调节它们的吸引力。我们通过 GPS 跟踪在养殖被渔船吸引的黑眉信天翁时对此进行了调查。我们测试了以下问题的答案。(i) 能否根据鸟类可用的线索预测未来的船只位置？(ii) 鸟类是否能够适当地利用这些线索来增加相遇次数？(iii) 鸟类使用这些线索的频率如何？船只在空间上具有持久性：与遵循随机方向策略相比，在它们之前乘船的方向搜索的鸟类会遇到两倍的船只。很大一部分鸟类没有使用这个提示：在成对的连续旅行中（n = 85），51% 的鸟类改变了它们的觅食方向，而不管之前是否遇到过船只。尽管如此，仍有 15 只鸟 (27%) 被观察到接近（约 0.1-1 公里）它们之前乘船而船已不在的地方。这比偶然预期的距离（大约 10-100 公里）要小，这是基于考虑个人特定空间一致性的排列控制程序，这表明个人可以记住他们在连续旅行中遇到船只的位置。我们得出的结论是信天翁能够利用最近船只遭遇的预测线索，但最喜欢的替代资源。1-1 公里），他们以前在那里乘船，而船不再在那里。这比偶然预期的距离（大约 10-100 公里）要小，这是基于考虑个人特定空间一致性的排列控制程序，这表明个人可以记住他们在连续旅行中遇到船只的位置。我们得出的结论是信天翁能够利用最近船只遭遇的预测线索，但最喜欢的替代资源。1-1 公里），他们以前在那里乘船，而船不再在那里。这比偶然预期的距离（大约 10-100 公里）要小，这是基于考虑个人特定空间一致性的排列控制程序，这表明个人可以记住他们在连续旅行中遇到船只的位置。我们得出的结论是信天翁能够利用最近船只遭遇的预测线索，但最喜欢的替代资源。