Abstract:

One of the advantages of colonial breeding may be the enhanced foraging efficiency through the location of colony. In a patchy environment a colonial breeder may experience a shorter distance between the nest and an average food patch than an average dispersed breeder. How are this distance influenced by nest location, and varying patchiness? To develop a model of a predator moving by random walk in a patchy foraging area I found that: (i) the nest location in a bounded area influenced sufficiently the mean flight distance and (ii) the growing patchiness increases this distance.