Using Foraging Ecology to Understand Warthog Habitat Preferences

An animal that feels safe or comfortable in a given environment will exploit a food resource more thoroughly than an animal in a risky or uncomfortable environment. Researchers can study and quantify how comfortable an animal feels in their environment by providing food patches and measuring the amount of food remaining after the forager departs. This measurement is called a Giving-Up Density (GUD). Examining GUDs offers a window into how animals perceive their surroundings. Repeated GUD measurements from food patches placed in the same location can be used to reflect an animal’s landscape of comfort (LOC), best described as an environmental map of areas of preference and aversion within a given habitat. This innovative approach offers valuable insight into how zoo-housed animals perceive their exhibit space directly from their perspective. We have been collaborating with researchers at Oakland University to measure the landscape of comfort in the warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) at the Detroit Zoo using experimental food patches (puzzle feeders) in their habitat. We are particularly interested in the warthogs due to their habitat’s proximity to one of the Zoo train stations. Using the food patches in combination with camera trap photos and behavioral observations, we aim to establish individual and group LOCs with special attention to how these LOCs may shift based on the activity from the train station.