Assessing trade-offs in avian behaviour using remotely collected data from a webcam

Abstract

Individual animals engage in many behaviours which are mutually exclusive, and so where individuals increase the duration of time spent on one type of behavioural activity, this must be offset by a corresponding decrease in at least one other type of behaviour. To understand the variation observed in animal behaviour, researchers need to know how individuals trade-off these mutually-exclusive behaviours within their time-activity budget. In this study, we used remotely collected behavioural observations made from a live-streaming webcam to investigate trade-offs in the behaviour of two bird species, the mute swan (Cygnus olor) and whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus). For both species, we tested for correlations in the duration of time spent on key mutually exclusive behaviours: aggression, foraging, maintenance, and resting. We detected a negative association between aggression and resting behaviours in both species, indicating that increased aggression is achieved at the expense of resting behaviour. In contrast, there was no apparent trade-off between aggression and foraging, aggression and maintenance, or maintenance and resting. Foraging and resting behaviours were negatively correlated in both species, highlighting a trade-off between these distinct modes of behaviour. A trade-off between foraging and maintenance behaviours was detected for the sedentary mute swans, but not the migratory whooper swans. Our findings show how birds can trade-off their time investments in mutually exclusive behaviours within their time-activity budgets. Moreover, our study demonstrates how remotely-collected data can be used to investigate fundamental questions in behavioural research.

Fig 1. Time-activity budgets.

The mean (±95% CI) proportion of observed time that mute swans (black bars; n = 81) and whooper swans (grey bars; n = 38) spent on each behaviour.

Fig 2. Observed mute swan behaviour at different times of day.

The bars represent the mean ± 95% CI time spent on each behaviour, whilst the filled circles represent the individual data points.

Fig 3. Observed whooper swan behaviour at different times of day.

The bars represent the mean ± 95% CI time spent on each behaviour, whilst the filled circles represent the individual data points.

Fig 4. Mute swan behavioural trade-offs.

Kendall’s tau correlations between each of the recorded mute swan behaviours.

Fig 5. Whooper swan behavioural trade-offs.

Kendall’s tau correlations between each of the recorded whooper swan behaviours.