FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Haliotis tuberculata , a generalist marine herbivore that prefers a mixed diet, but with consistent individual foraging activity BT AF Roussel, Sabine Poitevin, Pierre Day, Robert Le Grand, Fabienne Stiger‐Pouvreau, Valérie Leblanc, Catherine Huchette, Sylvain AS 1:1;2:1,2;3:1,3;4:6;5:1;6:4,5;7:2; FF 1:;2:;3:;4:;5:;6:;7:; C1 Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR Plouzane, France Kerazan Lilia France Haliotis Plouguerneau ,France School of Biological Sciences University of Melbourne Parkville Vic. ,Australia Station Biologique de Roscoff Integrative Biology of Marine Models UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 8227 Sorbonne Universités, Roscoff Cedex ,France Station Biologique de Roscoff Integrative Biology of Marine Models UMR 8227 CNRS, Roscoff Cedex ,France Univ Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR Plouzane, France C2 UBO, FRANCE FRANCE HALIOTIS, FRANCE UNIV MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA CNRS, FRANCE UNIV PARIS 6, FRANCE CNRS, FRANCE UM LEMAR IN WOS Cotutelle UMR copubli-france copubli-univ-france copubli-int-hors-europe IF 1.897 TC 9 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00613/72465/71613.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;food choice;foraging activity;individual consistency;intraclass correlation;marine herbivore;mollusc;proportion similarity index AB While population foraging behaviour of herbivores has been extensively studied, individual choice is still poorly understood. Very few studies have focused on the individual consistency of foraging behaviour in marine herbivores. Because marine ectotherms are strongly influenced by their environment and because a mixed diet is appropriate for herbivores, we hypothesized that Haliotis tuberculata, a large marine gastropod, would not exhibit significant individual consistency in foraging activity and would display generalist food choices. To test these hypotheses, the behaviour of 120 abalone was studied using a choice test of eight macroalgal species over 3 weeks, with video recording 24 hr a day. In addition, primary components, secondary metabolites and toughness of the eight algae were measured. At the population level, food choice was mainly related to the protein composition and the toughness of the macroalgae. We found that H. tuberculata is a generalist species feeding on a variety of algae (IS = 0.64), even if 21% of the individuals can be considered to be specialists. However, in contrast to our hypothesis, highly consistent between‐individual variation was observed in foraging activity (ICC = 0.81 for time spent feeding and ICC = 0.74 for number of feeding visits per day). The high individual consistency of foraging activity has some ecological and evolutionary implications currently not understood for this marine herbivore. PY 2020 PD JUN SO Ethology SN 0179-1613 PU Wiley VL 126 IS 7 UT 000540196900005 BP 716 EP 726 DI 10.1111/eth.13020 ID 72465 ER EF