title: Social interactions of juvenile brown boobies at sea as observed with animal-borne video cameras.
abstract: While social interactions play a crucial role on the development of young individuals, those of highly mobile juvenile birds in inaccessible environments are difficult to observe. In this study, we deployed miniaturised video recorders on juvenile brown boobies Sula leucogaster, which had been hand-fed beginning a few days after hatching, to examine how social interactions between tagged juveniles and other birds affected their flight and foraging behaviour. Juveniles flew longer with congeners, especially with adult birds, than solitarily. In addition, approximately 40% of foraging occurred close to aggregations of congeners and other species. Young seabirds voluntarily followed other birds, which may directly enhance their foraging success and improve foraging and flying skills during their developmental stage, or both.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan. yoda.ken@nagoya-u.jp
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoda
authors.forename: Miku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murakoshi
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsutsui
authors.forename: Hiroyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kohno
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008904:Miniaturization; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D014743:Videotape Recording