Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology Behavioral ecology is the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior, and the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to its environment . Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen (a seminal figure in the study of animal behavior), outlined the four causes of behavior that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment in which the animal lives. Foraging theory considers the foraging behavior of animals in reference to the payoff that an animal obtains from different foraging options. Foraging theory predicts that the foraging options that deliver the highest payoff should be favored by foraging animals because it will have the highest fitness Fitness is a central idea in evolutionary theory. It describes the capability of an individual of certain genotype to reproduce, and usually is equal to the proportion of the individual's genes in all the genes of the next generation. If differences in individual genotypes affect fitness, then the frequencies of the genotypes will change over payoff.
Robert MacArthur, J M Emlen, and Eric Pianka, first proposed an optimal foraging theory A central concern of ecology has traditionally been foraging behavior. In its most basic form, optimal foraging theory states that organisms forage in such a way as to maximize their energy intake per unit time. In other words, they behave in such a way as to find, capture and consume food containing the most calories while expending the least in an independent paper in 1966. This theory argued that because of the key importance of successful foraging to an individual's survival, it should be possible to predict foraging behavior by using decision theory Decision theory in mathematics and statistics is concerned with identifying the values, uncertainties and other issues relevant in a given decision and the resulting optimal decision. It is very closely related to the field of game theory to determine the behavior that would be shown by an "optimal forager" - one with perfect knowledge of what to do to maximize usable food intake. While the behavior of real animals inevitably departs from that of the optimal forager, optimal foraging theory has proved very useful in developing hypotheses for describing real foraging behavior. Departures from optimality often help to identify constraints either in the animal's behavioral or cognitive Cognition is the scientific term for "the process of thought" to knowing. Usage of the term varies in different disciplines; for example in psychology and cognitive science, it usually refers to an information processing view of an individual's psychological functions. Other interpretations of the meaning of cognition link it to the repertoire, or in the environment, that had not previously been suspected. With those constraints identified, foraging behavior often does approach the optimal pattern even if it is not identical to it.
There are many versions of optimal foraging theory that are relevant to different foraging situation. These include:
- The optimal diet model, which describes the behavior of a forager that encounters different types of prey and must choose which to attack
- Patch selection theory, which describes the behavior of a forager whose prey is concentrated in small areas with a significant travel time between them
- Central place foraging theory, which describes the behavior of a forager that must return to a particular place in order to consume its food, or perhaps to hoard it or feed it to a mate or offspring.
In recent decades, optimal foraging theory has frequently been applied to the foraging behaviour of human hunter-gatherers A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Hunter-gatherers obtain most from gathering rather than hunting; up to 80% of the food is obtained by gathering. The. Although this is controversial, coming under some of the same kinds of attack as the application of socio biological Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines which attempts to explain social behavior in animal species by considering the Darwinian advantages specific behaviors may have. It is often considered a branch of biology and sociology, but also draws from ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics and other theory to human behaviour, it does represent a convergence of ideas from human ecology Human ecology is an academic discipline that deals with the relationship between humans, human societies, and their natural, social and created environments and economic anthropology Economic anthropology is a scholarly field that attempts to explain human economic behavior using the tools of both economics and anthropology. It is practiced by anthropologists and has a complex relationship with economics. There are three major paradigms within the field of economic anthropology: formalism, substantivism and culturalism that has proved fruitful and interesting.
Important contributions to foraging theory have been made by:
- Eric Charnov, who developed the marginal value theorem to predict the behaviour of foragers using patches;
- Sir John Krebs, with work on the optimal diet model in relation to tits and chickadees;
- John Goss-Custard, who first tested the optimal diet model against behaviour in the field, using redshank The Common Redshank or simply Redshank is an Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae, and then proceeded to an extensive study of foraging in the Common Pied Oystercatcher.
See also
- Forage Forage is plant material eaten by grazing livestock. Historically the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage
- Hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. Hunter-gatherers obtain most from gathering rather than hunting; up to 80% of the food is obtained by gathering. The
References
- Emlen, J. M. (1966). The role of time and energy in food preference. American Naturalist, 100, 611-617.
- MacArthur, R. H. and Pianka, E. R. (1966). On the optimal use of a patchy environment. American Naturalist, 100, 603-609.
- Stephens, D. W., & Krebs, J. R. (1986). Foraging theory. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Stephens, D. W., Brown, J. S., & Ydenberg, R .C. (2007) Foraging: Behavior and Ecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- L.-A. Giraldeau and T. Caraco, Social Foraging Theory (2000). Princeton University Press, May 2000.
External links
- African Pygmies food gathering. Foraging in the rainforest
- Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables. [1]
- The Big Green Idea Wild Foraging Factsheet
- Sosis, Richard. (2000), The emergence and stability of cooperative fishing on Ifaluk Atoll, for Human Behavior and Adaptation: an Anthropological Perspective, edited by L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and B. Iro ns, pp. 437-472. Article
Categories: Human skills Categories: Skills | Humans | Human behavior | Eating behaviors Categories: Behavioral ecology | Ethology | Habits | Behavior | Food and drink
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He said he tried shotguns, kites and scarecrows but still had problems with foraging birds when his muscadine grapes were ripening. "After installation of the WhirlyBirds, foraging came to an abrupt end," he said, adding that the result was a 20 ...
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Monk seals Foraging Ecology A young seal forages for prey in the coral reef Photograph courtesy of pifsc noaa fisheries Several studies have been initiated in the Northwestern
