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Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. [1] Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives.
Optimal foraging theory has been used to predict animal behaviour when searching for food, but can also be used for humans (specifically hunter-gatherers). Food provides energy but costs energy to obtain. Foraging strategy must provide the most benefit for the lowest cost – it is a balance between nutritional value and energy required.
The marginal value theorem (MVT) is an optimality model that usually describes the behavior of an optimally foraging individual in a system where resources (often food) are located in discrete patches separated by areas with no resources. Due to the resource-free space, animals must spend time traveling between patches.
Vigilance, in the field of behavioural ecology, refers to an animal's monitoring of its surroundings in order to heighten awareness of predator presence. Vigilance is an important behaviour during foraging as animals must often venture away from the safety of shelter to find food.
Central place foraging (CPF) theory is an evolutionary ecology model for analyzing how an organism can maximize foraging rates while traveling through a patch (a discrete resource concentration), but maintains the key distinction of a forager traveling from a home base to a distant foraging location rather than simply passing through an area or travelling at random.
Additionally, foraging behavior in coho salmon does not uphold ideal free distribution predicted by the equal competitors model, but does uphold ideal free distribution with the inclusion of competitive inequalities. In other words, the distribution of the number of fish was significantly different from the distribution of the competitive weights.
Risk sensitive foraging is based on experimental evidence that the net energy budget level of an animal is predictive of type of foraging activity an animal will employ. [1] Experimental evidence has indicated that individuals will change the type of foraging strategy that they use depending on environmental conditions and ability to meet net ...
Avian foraging refers to the range of activities and behaviours exhibited by birds in their quest for food. In addition to their unique body adaptations, birds have a range of described behaviours that differ from the foraging behaviours of other animal groups. According to the foraging habitat, birds may be grouped into foraging guilds ...