How do Whooping Cranes locate buried food items while foraging in soft substrates?
Answer
Probing the substrate with their long bills
The foraging technique employed by the Whooping Crane is methodical and instrumental in accessing subsurface food. When moving through mudflats or shallow water, they systematically walk and probe the soft substrate using the considerable length of their bills. This probing action acts as a sensitive detector, allowing them to locate and extract buried food items such as mollusks, tubers, and burrowing invertebrates. This behavior requires a constant calculation regarding the trade-off between the energy expended digging deeper for a larger item versus rapidly pecking at surface-level foods.
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