Trap-lining

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For the spider structure, see Trap line (spiders).

In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps.[1] Trap-lining has been described in several taxa, including bees, butterflies, tamarins, bats, rats, and hummingbirds and tropical frugivorous mammals such as opossums, capuchins and kinkajous.[1][2] The term "traplining" was coined by Daniel Janzen, although the concept was discussed by Charles Darwin and Nikolaas Tinbergen.[3]

In the case of sapsuckers, a type of woodpecker, entrapped insects in sap are an essential source of food. For hummingbirds the relationship is to the seasonally flowering species providing nectar.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Saleh, Nehal; Chittka, Lars (2006). "Traplining in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens): a foraging strategy’s ontogeny and the importance of spatial reference memory in short-range foraging". Oecologia 151 (4): 719–730. doi:10.1007/s00442-006-0607-9. 
  2. ↑ Kays, Roland, M. Elizabeth Rodríguez,Lina María Valencia, Robert Horan, Adam R. Smith, and Christian Ziegler. (2012). "Animal Visitation and Pollination of Flowering Balsa Trees (Ochroma pyramidale) in Panama". Mesoamericana 16 (3): 56–70. 
  3. ↑ Thomson, James D., Montgomery Slatirin, and Barbara A. Thomson (1997). "Trapline foraging by bumble bees: II. Definition and detection from sequence data". Behavioral Ecology 8 (2): 199-210. 


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