EAGER: Social foraging in Ameiva lizards

依赖于其他动物的信息来获取食物的动物正在进行社会觅食，这可能包括偷食（盗寄生），公共拾荒和社会食肉动物的合作狩猎等多种行为。社会觅食的例子有据可查，并不均匀地集中在某些动物群体中，尽管这种现象很普遍，并延伸到通常不被认为是社会性的动物。 这个EAGER计划的目的是发展一条关于蜥蜴Ameiva corax的社会觅食的调查路线。 在A. corax指出，社会觅食对这种蜥蜴很重要;分享食物是很常见的，因为大的食物和蜥蜴获取成年海鸟带到巢穴喂养雏鸟的材料（一种盗寄生形式）。 本项目将着重于描述黄腹蛛的觅食生态学特征，特别关注黄腹蛛和黄腹蛛之间的相互作用。corax和供应海鸟。 对自然觅食蜥蜴的观察和调查将用于确定1）个体蜥蜴之间的关联模式，2）获得食物的蜥蜴的人口统计学和社会地位，以及3）蜥蜴获得鱼类的情况。 这项研究将丰富对不同环境和不同动物群体的社会觅食特征的理解，并将作为进一步研究的基础，评估社会行为模型的一般性。这项研究将为代表性不足的学生提供研究培训，研究结果和后续工作将纳入部落学院的教育活动。研究结果将通过向学校和其他组织（包括但不限于学校、部落组织和自然历史俱乐部或中心）介绍而传播给公众。

Animals that rely on information from others to obtain food are engaging in social foraging, which can include such diverse behaviors as food stealing (kleptoparasitism), communal scavenging, and the cooperative hunting of social carnivores. Well documented examples of social foraging are unevenly concentrated in certain animal groups, though the phenomenon is widespread and extends to animals typically not considered social. The purpose of this EAGER proposal is to develop a line of inquiry concerning the social foraging of the lizard Ameiva corax. Pilot work on A. corax indicates that social foraging is important to this lizard; food sharing is common for large food items and lizards obtain material that adult seabirds bring to the nest to feed nestlings (a form of kleptoparasitism). This project will focus on characterizing the foraging ecology of Ameiva corax, with particular attention devoted to the interactions between A. corax and provisioning seabirds. Observations and surveys of naturally foraging lizards will be used to determine the 1) patterns of association among individual lizards, 2) demographic and social status of lizards that secure food, and 3) circumstances under which lizards obtain fish. The study will enrich understanding of the characteristics of social foraging across circumstances and across animal groups, and will serve as the basis for further studies evaluating the generality of models of social behavior. This study will provide research training to underrepresented students, and the results as well as follow-up efforts will be incorporated into educational activities at a tribal college. Results will be disseminated to the general public through presentations to schools and other organizations (including, but not limited to, schools, tribal organizations, and natural history clubs or centers).