Trap-lining

(Phaethornis longirostris baroni), a species of traplining hummingbird adapted for flying long distances (Selasphorus rufus), a species of territorial hummingbird, is more robust than traplining species 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. Traplining is usually seen in species foraging for floral resources. This involves a specified route in which the individual traverses in the same order repeatedly to check specific plants for flowers that hold nectar, even over long distances. Trap-lining has been described in several taxa, including bees, butterflies, tamarins, bats, rats, and hummingbirds and tropical fruit-eating mammals such as opossums, capuchins and kinkajous. Traplining is used to term the method in which bumblebees and hummingbirds go about collecting nectar, and consequently, pollinating each plant they visit. The term "traplining" was originally coined by Daniel Janzen, although the concept was discussed by Charles Darwin and Nikolaas Tinbergen.

(Phaethornis longirostris baroni), a species of traplining hummingbird adapted for flying long distances]] (Selasphorus rufus), a species of territorial hummingbird, is more robust than traplining species]] 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. Traplining is usually seen in species foraging for floral resources. This involves a specified route in which the individual traverses in the same order repeatedly to check specific plants for flowers that hold nectar, even over long distances. Trap-lining has been described in several taxa, including bees, butterflies, tamarins, bats, rats, and hummingbirds and tropical fruit-eating mammals such as opossums, capuchins and kinkajous. Traplining is used to term the method in which bumblebees and hummingbirds go about collecting nectar, and consequently, pollinating each plant they visit. The term "traplining" was originally coined by Daniel Janzen, although the concept was discussed by Charles Darwin and Nikolaas Tinbergen. ==Energy conservation== Traplining hummingbirds are known to be active proportionally to nectar production in flowers, decreasing throughout the day. Therefore, traplining hummingbirds can spend less time foraging, and obtain their energy intake from a few number of flowers. Spending less time searching for food means less energy spent flying and searching. Traplining bumblebees prioritize their routes based on travel distance and reward quantity. It is seen that the total distance of the trapline is related to the abundance of the reward (nectar) in the environment. ==Spatial cognition and memory== Traplining can also be an indication of the levels of spatial cognition of species that use the technique. For example, traplining in bumblebees is an indication that bumblebees have spatial reference memory, or spatial memory, that is used to create specific routes in short term foraging. The ability to remember specific routes long-term cuts down foraging and flying time, consequently conserving energy. This theory has been tested, showing that bumblebees can remember the shortest route to the reward, even when the original path has been changed or obstructed. Additionally, bees cut down the amount of time spent revisiting sites with little or no nutritive reward. Bees with access to only short-term memory forage inefficiently. ==Research== Observing traplining in the natural world has proven to be very difficult and little is known about how and why species trapline, but the study of traplining in the natural environment does take place. In one particular study, individual bees trained on five artificial flowers of equal reward were observed traplining between those five flowers. When a new flower of higher reward gets included in the group, the bees subsequently adjust their trapline to include the higher reward flower. Under natural conditions they hypothesized that it would likely be beneficial for bees to prioritize higher reward flowers to either beat out competition or conserve energy. In other field experiments, ecologists created a "competition vacuum" to observe whether or not bumblebees adjusted their feeding routes based on intense direct competition between other bumblebees. This study showed that bees in areas of higher competition are more productive than the control bees. Bumblebees opportunistically adjust their use of traplining routes in response to activity of other competing bees. Another effective way to study the behavior of traplining species is via computer simulation and indoor flight cage experiments. Simulation models can be made to show the linkage between pollinator movement and pollen flow. This model considers how service by the pollinators with different foraging patterns would affect the flow of pollen. Indoor flight cage experiments allow for easier determination between test subjects and easier observation of behavior and patterns. Bees in small study environments seem to demonstrate less traplining tendencies than bees that were studied in environments that stretched over several hectares. A larger working area increases the need for traplining techniques to further conserve energy and maximize nutrient intake and that bees most often trapline due strictly to travel distance. The bees remember these complex flight paths by breaking them into small segments using vectors, landmarks and other environmental factors, each one pointing to the next destination. Despite a long history of research on bee learning and navigation, most knowledge has been deduced from the behavior of foragers traveling between their nest and a single feeding location. Only recently, studies of bumblebees foraging in arrays of artificial flowers fitted with automated tracking systems have started to describe the learning mechanisms behind complex route formation between multiple locations. The demonstration that all these observations can be accurately replicated by a single learning heuristic model holds considerable promises to further investigate these questions and fill a major gap in cognitive ecology. ==See also== Optimal foraging theory ==References==

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