Unsuccessful foragers acquire social information through group departure and travel in penguins

Abstract Colonial animals are theoretically expected to use social information to reduce uncertainty regarding food location and quality; however, few empirical studies have investigated how they acquire and when they rely on such information. Here, we simultaneously tracked 96–116 breeding Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), corresponding to 35.6–43.0% of active breeders in a colony, across 653 foraging trips, and examined their movement decisions. We found that foraging site selection was mo