Publications by authors named "Nathan Banfield"
Article Synopsis
- Many species exhibit natal habitat preference induction (NHPI), where young adults choose habitats similar to where they were raised, but little is known about its development.
- In a study of juvenile common loons, it was found that they preferred foraging on lakes with similar pH to their natal lakes, regardless of other factors like size.
- Interestingly, unlike older individuals, juveniles did not prefer foraging in lakes similar in size but instead favored larger, more food-rich lakes, highlighting that NHPI can vary at different life stages.
The study of habitat selection has long been influenced by the ideal free model, which maintains that young adults settle in habitat according to its inherent quality and the density of conspecifics within it. The model has gained support in recent years from the finding that conspecifics produce cues inadvertently that help prebreeders locate good habitat. Yet abundant evidence shows that animals often fail to occupy habitats that ecologists have identified as those of highest quality, leading to the conclusion that young animals settle on breeding spaces by means not widely understood.
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