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Chapter 11 Orgo

- Foraging behavior involves searching for and consuming food, which takes up a large portion of animals' time. Animals develop search images to recognize foods by seeing them repeatedly over time. - Optimal foraging theory uses models to predict which food items animals will consume based on energy value, encounter rate, and handling time to maximize energy intake per unit time. Experiments have supported predictions of this theory. - Group foraging can benefit individuals by decreasing time spent on anti-predator behaviors and using public information from others to assess food patches. Social learning also facilitates cultural transmission of foraging information within groups.

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49 views

Chapter 11 Orgo

- Foraging behavior involves searching for and consuming food, which takes up a large portion of animals' time. Animals develop search images to recognize foods by seeing them repeatedly over time. - Optimal foraging theory uses models to predict which food items animals will consume based on energy value, encounter rate, and handling time to maximize energy intake per unit time. Experiments have supported predictions of this theory. - Group foraging can benefit individuals by decreasing time spent on anti-predator behaviors and using public information from others to assess food patches. Social learning also facilitates cultural transmission of foraging information within groups.

Uploaded by

akuliko1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Survival

• To past down genes to next generation


animals need one major things:
– Survive to reproductive age
• For many animals, survival comes down to
two factors:
– Finding food
– Avoiding predators (Chapter 12)
Foraging

Chapter 11
Overview
• What diet maximizes the energy intake?
– Optimal Foraging model
– Marginal value theorem prediction
– Specific nutrient constraints
– Risk-sensitive optimal foraging model
• Foraging and group life
• Seed caching
– Social learning and foraging
Key Questions
• How do animals know what food items look
like?
• How does foraging theory predict where
animals will forage and what they will eat?
• How do group social dynamics affect
foraging?
• What proximate analysis can serve to
explain animal foraging behaviors?
• What role does learning play in foraging
decisions?
Foraging behavior
• Searching for and consuming makes up a
large part of the time foraging.
• How do animals determine what a particular
type of food looks (taste, fells or smells)?
How do animals find and
recognize food?
• Search Image Theory
– Proposed by Luke Tinbergen (1960s)
– As they see a prey more and more, they form a
representation of that prey
– This representation becomes more detailed over
time
– Leads to an increase in success rates
Puma foraging strategy
• We can use the Search
Image theory to
explain how the puma
learn about preys.
• As they mature, they
become able to
identify and hunt
bigger preys
• Read “Hunting pumas” document on
BringSpace
What food items should forager
eat?
• Should the forager eat item 1 or item 2
• Should the forager add item 2 to their diet
– Depends on how often they encounter item 1
• Optimal foraging theory use modeling to
predict which item(s) will be consumed.
Optimal foraging theory
• To predict various aspects of animal
foraging behavior within a given set of
constraints.
• In this model, each prey item will have:
– Energy value (calories)
– Encounter rate
– Handling time (capture and ingestion)
Optimal foraging theory

• Profitability of prey item is defined as:


– Energy/handling time
– Assuming encounter rate is the same for each
item
The greater Energy/handling time, the greater the
profitability of a prey.
Optimal Foraging Theory
• Mathematical equation to model food
preference
– Assumptions
• Energy must be measured in a standard unit
• Foragers can’t simultaneously handle one prey item
and search for another
• Prey are recognized instantly and accurately
• Prey are encountered sequentially
• Natural selection favors foragers that maximize their
rate of energy intake
What food items should forager eat?
• Imagine there is a bear
– He must choose which berries to eat
– Each berry will have an energy value, an
encounter rate and handling time
• Energy value
– 300 calories
• Encounter rate
– Seen every 3 minutes
• Handling time
– 2 minutes to eat it
– Profitability of the item
• Energy/handling time = 300/2= 150 cal/min
Optimal Foraging Theory
• What questions are answerable with this
model?
– What food items should a forager eat?
– How long should a forager stay in a certain
food patch?
– How does variance in food supply affect a
forager’s decision about what food types to eat?
Experimentally testing Optimal Foraging
Theory
• Mealworms of
different sizes
presented on a
conveyor belt to great
tits.
Experimentally testing Optimal Foraging
Theory

It is the encounter rate of the most profitable prey, that


determines whether to take the least profitable items
Available prey versus prey selected

Although foraging Eurasian oystercatchers tend to choose fairly


large mussels, they do not prefer the very largest mussels.
Where should they eat?
• Marginal Value Theorem assumptions
– A patch of food is an area that a forager can
deplete (like a tree full of fruits, …)
– Once a forager begins eating, the rate it takes in
food decreases
– It can then move to other patches, but at a cost
(energy, lost time, increase predation)
Marginal Value Theorem Experiment

• The amount of time birds spent in a patch matched


the optimal time predicted by the marginal value
theorem
Specific Nutrient Constraints
• Some animals need specific nutrient (like
trace element, e.g. zinc) in order to stay
healthy.
• Such nutrition constraint will impact
foraging rules.
• Particularly important in herbivores that
need large amount of low-energy food to
survive
– Moose Example
Moose:
Needs 2.57 gr of sodium/day = 18 percent time
eating aquatic plant (during summer), because it is
not available during winter
Risk-Sensitive Optimal Foraging
Model
• This is not a risk of danger, but rather risk
of not eating
• Variance of availability of prey plays an
important role in animal foraging behavior
• This model account for
– Energy costs of foraging
– Predation risk costs
– Missed opportunity costs
Risk-Sensitive Optimal Foraging
Model
• Patch 1 has a 100% chance of 8 food items
• Patch 2 has a 50% chance of 16 food items and a 50% chance of
0 items (more risk)
• The state of hunger plays a role in their choice
– State 1: every food item is valued equally
• Hungry but not starved
• indifferent } patch 1 or 2
– State 2: each item is worth less and less
• Fairly full } patch 1
• risk averse
– State 3: each item is worth more and more
• Starving } patch 2
• Risk prone
Risk-Sensitive Optimal Foraging
Model

Junco foraging
behavior has been
used to test
numerous optimal
foraging models.

Starving Satiated
Risk-prone Risk-averse
Growing Food

• Fifty million
years ago, ants
began to
cultivate their
own food. • Ants use a bacteria’s
• They harvest antibiotics to kill
leaves to fungus parasites that grow in
their fungal gardens
Growing Food
FORAGING AND GROUP LIFE
Group size influence success
• Increased foraging group size increases the
amount of food each forager receives
– May be due to:
• More foragers are easier to flush out prey
• Divisions of labor

In bluegills foraging in group increase


individual foraging success up to a group
size of 4 individuals.
Chimpanzees hunting colobus
monkeys
Foraging in group benefits
• Can decrease the amount of time an
individual needs to devote to antipredator
activities.
• Use the action of others as a means of
assessing the condition of the environment
(public information)
– Use the success of others as an estimate of
patch quality
SEED CACHING
Seed Caching
• Some animals cache their food and can
remember to retrieve them in time of need
or before they get bad…
• It requires a good spatial memory
(hippocampus) to remember where the food
is cache.
Corvid hippocampal Size

Some of these birds may remember


the location of 6,000-10,000 seeds
for 9 months
Top hat
• Individuals from corvid populations where
food resources are relatively scarce would
be expected to possess a
– Smaller brain
– Larger hippocampus
– Larger amygdala
Posted on BrightSpace
• Natural selection and spatial memory link
shown in mountain chickadee
Crows and innovation
Brain size, innovation
• Many species show abilities of learning
during foraging

• Innovation defined as
“either ingestion of
new food type or the
use of new foraging
technique.
• Foraging innovation
correlated with brain
size
SOCIAL LEARNING AND
FORAGING
Social learning and foraging
• Information about foraging can be culturally
transmitted when individuals live in groups.
Social Learning and Foraging

There is a role for cultural transmission in the foraging


behavior in pigeons.
Social Learning and Foraging
under Natural Conditions
• A pigeon’s group is made up of two types
of individuals
• Producers
– Figure out the “puzzle”
– Get the food for the whole group
– Share the food
• Scroungers
– Cannot learn how to get the food
– Eat food found by producers
– Focuses on the producer location not action
Social Learning and Foraging

Only the producer were able to open the tubes, and find food
Social Learning and Foraging

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