ArticleEcology letters2018
Intragroup competition predicts individual foraging specialisation in a group-living mammal.
Article in Ecology letters, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Individual and population variation in isotopic niche between two sympatric cormorant species.PeerJ · 2026Article
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- Density-dependent network structuring within and across wild animal systems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Resource use, niche width, and trophic position reveal diverse trophic structure in a tidal freshwater zone fish community.Journal of fish biology · 2025Article
- Individual Mechanical Energy Expenditure Regimens Vary Seasonally with Weather, Sex, Age and Body Condition in a Generalist Carnivore Population: Support for Inter-Individual Tactical Diversity.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
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- Unveiling the trophic dynamics and ecological roles of demersal fish in Hong Kong: A metabarcoding and isotope analysis approach.PloS one · 2025Article
- Collective intelligence facilitates emergent resource partitioning through frequency-dependent learning.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Seabirds show foraging site and route fidelity but demonstrate flexibility in response to local information.Movement ecology · 2024Article
- The adaptive value of density-dependent habitat specialization and social network centrality.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Human habitat modification, not apex scavenger decline, drives isotopic niche variation in a carnivore community.Oecologia · 2024Article
- It's about time: Feeding competition costs of sociality are affected more by temporal characteristics than spatial distribution.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Interspecific variation in the diet ofBiodiversity data journal · 2024Article
- Skill trade-offs promote persistent individual differences and specialized tactics.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Isotopic Overlap of Invasive and Native Consumers in the Food Web of Lake Trasimeno (Central Italy).Biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Epigenetic opportunities for evolutionary computation.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Herbivorous dietary selection shown by hawfinch (Royal Society open science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individual foraging specialisation has important ecological implications, but its causes in group-living species are unclear. One of the major consequences of group living is increased intragroup competition for resources. Foraging theory predicts that with increased competition, individuals should add new prey items to their diet, widening their foraging niche ('optimal foraging hypothesis'). However, classic competition theory suggests the opposite: that increased competition leads to niche partitioning and greater individual foraging specialisation ('niche partitioning hypothesis'). We tested these opposing predictions in wild, group-living banded mongooses (Mungos mungo), using stable isotope analysis of banded mongoose whiskers to quantify individual and group foraging niche. Individual foraging niche size declined with increasing group size, despite all groups having a similar overall niche size. Our findings support the prediction that competition promotes niche partitioning within social groups and suggest that individual foraging specialisation may play an important role in the formation of stable social groupings.
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